A Little Night Music: Bane's Epilogue
by White Keyblade Oathkeeper
Summary: Ever wondered what happened to Bane at the end of ALNM, and the things about his past that were left unsaid? Well wonder no more. Join Bane and his friends as they journey to save the very universe from an evil that was locked away long ago
1. Memories of Murphy

Hi everybody, this fic was requested by srgeman as a sequel of sorts for his (srgeman, I called you 'he' because you have 'man' in your penname) fic A Little Night Music, that means if you haven't read his fic then don't read this one. This fic however will follow Bane after the events of A Little Night Music. So without further adieu I present:

**A Little Night Music: Bane's Epilog**

**Chapter 1 Memories of Murphy**

Do you know what it's like to finish an adventure just to be thrown into another? New objective, new companions, new places, and most importantly new rules. It feels a bit like culture shock. Oh by the way, did I forget to mention I lost a foot? Let me tell you it sucks big time, I even had to use a stick as a cane. Pretty pathetic for a Lucario huh?

Well enough monologuing lets just skip to the part where I get back home ok. I could see the forest that I once called home, that is, before the disaster. In my travels I had heard rumors that the village was back up and running thanks to their defenders and the village priestess; AKA my mom. It was at that time I had a strange feeling that someone was watching me, I couldn't see anything so I tried aura sensing, and there it was; it was small but I was sure it was aura, not only that but I knew who it belonged to. I was almost in the forest when "AHHH" I was attacked by a Mothim

I just chuckled and said "well, well, well, look who evolved while I was gone"

The Mothim froze up, looked me in the eyes and asked "…Bane? Is…is that really you?"

"Nice to see you too Murphy"

Murphy froze up again (poor guy has a habit of doing that) "BANE!!" he yelled at the top of his small lungs as he hugged my head, to tell you the truth; it didn't seem that different from when he was attacking me

"Hey, hey, easy I already lost a foot, don't break my ears ok" that's Murphy for you; he can give you a headache in half a second

After hearing that (and checking to see if I was messing with him) he froze up, the odd thing was that his wings were still flapping (I'd expected him to fall down). "Bane" he whispered "what happened?"

"Long story" I replied "I'll tell you later". The little Mothim stared at me in awe "what?"

That snapped him out of it "I'm sorry. It's just…we all thought you were dead, we didn't think you'd make it on your own, ever since then Aura, Shade, me and your mom have been-" that got my attention

"Wait, are you saying that Aura and Shade are both still here?"

"Oh yeah I almost forgot, Aura would love to see you, your mom too" that Murphy; you can never tell what goes on in his head (although that might be a good thing) "come on lets go"

By now you might be wondering 'who the hell is Murphy?' well I'm about to tell you. In my second year as a Pokémon my mom was still worried about everyone else finding out about me being a reborn human. I first met Murphy in one of my rare excursions outside

I was relaxing under a tree in between my home and the village; I could go outside but not too far from the cave. Getting back to the point, I was relaxing under the tree, eating some berries from it (trust me; the stuff gets a lot better when you're a Pokémon) when all of a sudden something fell on my head, I looked in front of me and saw a pile of leafs "what the hell?" I said as I walked towards it. It was then that I noticed that it was shaking, I got a little closer to it and then a tine head popped out

"PLEASE DON'T KILL ME. I HAVE SO MUCH TO LIVE FOR. I BEG YOU!!!!!!!! (My ears were ringing for weeks after that) " I could tell the little Burmy was touched in the head, but I was amazed that such a small thing could be so loud (to this day I have yet to hear anything louder than him)

"Ow. This isn't the first tree you've fallen out of is it?"

Instead of a straight answer I got more screaming "OH NO, YOU KNOW ABOUT ALL THOSE OTHER TIMES TOO? I'M GOANNA DIE!!!!"

"I'm not goanna kill you so stop with the ear killing already"

The glow in his eye at those words rivaled that of a young child on Christmas morning (assuming they came from a nice family) "you mean I'm goanna live?" Cautions of his reaction I nodded my head "Yay" was all he said, the little Burmy sure could be unpredictable. He took this time to put his cloak back together "you're a human aren't you? That came as a bigger shock then dying. I was scared; I thought my cover was blown

"Um" was all I could say

The little bug smiled and said "don't worry, I won't tell my new best friend's biggest secret" the best friend thing came out of nowhere, but if it would keep him quiet I would just have to go along with it

"Thanks, so…what gave me away?"

Still smiling he responded "you didn't kill me (this was the first of many secrets Murphy found out using faulty logic, such as the Sitrus berry I found, me meeting Shade, and my crush on Aura)" how he got that I never did find out. Although Murphy always seemed a bit 'out there' he was one of the most trustworthy Pokémon/person I ever knew. Being a Burmy (among other things) he was bullied a lot, because of this I took on the role of bodyguard for him. While I became friends with Murphy to keep him quiet about my secret the two of us quickly bonded, one memory that stands out was the festival, it took place sometime after Aura stopped being a pest (and by that I mean stopped bugging me to be her mate and learned about my secret), once you get to know her she's kind of cool. Back to the story, Murphy, Aura, and I were walking around the village (now decorated with glowing rocks)

"Alright. Time to paint the town red" I was excited; this was the first festival my mom let me go to. When I looked back at my friends they had a bewildered look on their faces "what?"

Aura was about to say something, but Murphy beat here to it (another common occurrence when you hang around with him) "what does 'paint the town red' mean?"

In retrospect I really should have seen that coming, of course they wouldn't know what that means "something along the lines of 'let's have a good time'"

Aura (now a veteran in getting a word in edgewise around Murphy) covered the little Burmy's mouth with her paw and asked "is that a human term?"

"Yeah" was my reply

"Well, well, well, look who we have here" crap, not him

"Chakra just leave us alone" demanded Aura. Chakra was Aura's older brother (I guess generic names run in the family); he was the biggest snob I ever knew (counting all the rich people I meet as a human). In short; I hate him

"Aura, dear, you shouldn't associate yourself with lower class vermin like them" see why I hate him?

"But Bane's mom is the priestess" Aura said in my defense, a defense we all knew wouldn't work

"Ha. A dead baby maker like her doesn't deserve that title" keeping my cool around him is not an easy task

"Leave my mom out of this" I somehow managed to keep my voice low

Chakra punched me to the ground and said "you dare talk to me! You don't even deserve to look at me!" a few seconds later he found some sticky white thread on his face "what the?"

"DON'T YOU PUNCH BANE! YOU'RE JUST A STUCK UP, EGOCENTRIC CRAP-TARD (you were probably expecting 'SOB', well that would be insulting aura as well)! YOU ACT BETTER THAN EVERYONE ELSE BUT THE TRUTH IS YOU AREN'T, YOU HAVEN'T EVEN DONE ANYTHING YET, YOU JUST TAKE CREDIT FOR WHAT YOUR PARENTS DID. BANE'S A MUCH BETTER PERSON THEN YOU, IN FACT; YOU DON'T DESERVE TO EVEN LOOK AT HIM YOU JERK!!!!!!!!!!" needless to say Murphy's little (yeah right) outburst took everyone by surprise. It was the maddest I'd ever seen Chakra get

"You insignificant little worm. How dare you talk to me like that!!" he swung his fist to hit him but felt something holding him back

"Don't you hit him you creep!" yelled Aura

This made Chakra mad "Aura what are you doing!? He insulted me!"

"Yeah, but he's right" was her response

That caught him of guard "w-what"

"I said he's right. In fact I bet everyone here thinks the same thing, they just don't have the balls to say it" they say a picture is worth a thousand words, but the look on Chakra's face was priceless, to this day it is my most treasured freeze frame memory.

Aura standing up to her big brother was the highlight of the day. Before I go on it might be a good idea to clear something up; unlike the rest of all living beings, when Murphy gets angry he remains in complete control of himself. Now some of you might be thinking 'you call that control?' well I know for a fact that's true. I learned it a little later that night

The three of us were sitting in a tree, it was at this time I decided to talk to Murphy about something "you know Murphy, it was amazing the way you defended me from Chakra like that, but next time you might want to control yourself a little more"

The little Burmy looked like he had no idea what I just said (not the first time and definitely not the last) "what do you mean 'more control'? I was in complete control of myself"

"Yeah right" responded Aura

"No I mean it, I meant every word I said" this would have come as a surprise to me and Aura, but by that time we were used to odd things about the little guy. Murphy sure made my life as a Pokémon more interesting.

Back to the main story. "We're almost there" he told me, I debated whether or not to remind him I knew where it was seeing as how I lived there. When the village was within sight I started to get a little numb. The first thing I saw was a bunch of injured Pokémon being treated by a beautiful Lucario "Hey Aura"

The Lucario turned her head and smiled "why hello there Murphy" then she looked at me "who's your new friend?" I had a hard time believing the gorgeous female in front of me was the same Aura I knew from before

Murphy had the biggest grin on his face, he looked like he had just solved an impossible murder and was itching to tell us how he did it "why Aura, can't you tell?"

It was then she looked at my injury "oh my god" she gasped "what happened to you?"

"Long story" I replied

Then she looked at my makeshift cane "using a stick to help you walk…that's pretty clever"

Judging by the look on Murphy's face this is what he had been waiting for "it's a _human_ trick" he said emphasizing human

Aura was a bit confused "why did you-" then it hit her. She grabbed Murphy and said in a threatening voice "if you're messing around with me then I'll make sure you never get to know the joy of having children" yep, that was Aura alright. She turned to me, closed her eyes, and her dreadlocks started to rise, she was reading my aura. When she opened her eyes tears poured out of them and in a whispered tone she said "you're alive…Bane"

You there you have it; Chapter one. In the next chapter I delve a little deeper into Bane's history with Aura. Read and review but remember if you can't say anything nice don't say anything at all.


	2. Memories of Aura

Wow, a lot of people faved this story. Well in this chapter I revel Bane's history with Aura. Thanks srgeman, Sanablades, NightCore for reviewing.

**Chapter 2 Memories of Aura**

"I can't believe it, Bane…you're alive" she started to walk up to me slowly. I was expecting a hug, boy was I wrong; she slapped me "that's for making me worry you jerk" in hindsight I really should have seen that coming

"Nice to see you too Aura" it was at that time I noticed what was around her neck "my necklace…its ok" yes that's right; I said necklace. But it wasn't just any necklace, I was born with it. It was a string with a Silver Wing, a Rainbow Wing, and a Lunar Wing hooked on it (Latios must have pulled some big strings (bad pun))

"Oh yeah…this is yours isn't it?" she said embarrassed as she handed it back to me. It was easy to see she had matured quite a bit since I last saw her

* * *

Before I really got to know her she was a pain in the butt. She tried on numerous occasions to catch me (quite elaborately I might add). They got easier to escape from after I met Murphy. I always thought she was insane, now I wasn't too far off but there was a reason for her chasing me

This story takes place not to long before the Sitrus berry adventure (but that's a story for another time). I was walking in the woods looking for Murphy (the poor guy gets lost in his own home) when I saw Aura with a Lucario (who I now know to be her older brother Chakra); they were in a small clearing with a few rocks and a log

"Man you're weak" Chakra complained, obviously a training session

Aura was panting hard "screw…you" needless to say this took be by surprise, I'd never seen her like this

"Pathetic" Chakra scoffed before walking away. It was then that I saw something that I never saw coming; Aura sat on the log and started crying. Now in my human life I was in a lot of emotional pain, that being said, it helped me become an empathic person, being reborn as a Pokémon failed to change that

'I just know I'm goanna regret this' I remember thinking. She was so busy crying that she didn't hear me coming up "hey"

She jumped at the sound of my voice; to this day I'm still not sure if it was because it was my voice or just a voice "what are you doing here" that took me by surprise; instead of jumping all over me she just scorns me with a voice filled with angst

I sighed "look; if I stay and comfort you will you promise not to jump on me" she nodded so I sat down next to her

"Why are you being so nice to me?" she asked "we're not related, and I harass you all the time"

I just shrugged "is there a problem with that?"

She shook her head "no it's just, our kind isn't like that; we aren't sympathetic toward Pokémon we don't know that well"

"I guess I'm just different" was my reply. She was still crying "need a hug?" She looked a bit taken aback "just for comfort" I reassured. She laid her head on my chest and I put my arms around her "better?"

"Much" she replied. We just sat there for a while until she broke the silence "I'm sorry"

"For what?" I asked

"For chasing you so much" her face started to get sad again "I just wanted someone to love me"

That worried me "what about your parents?"

She shook her head "they aren't around a lot" well that was reassuring; at least they cared

I looked up at the sky "well forcing someone to be your mate won't get you love"

She turned her gaze upward too "I know" then she turned to me "can…we start over?"

I gave her a reassuring smile and said "sure"

It was then I heard a rustling in the tree behind us; as per usual Murphy was here to kill the mood "ATTACK!!!!" he cried out as he jumped from the tree all the way onto Aura's head (don't ask me how; I'm still working on that one). Then he just bounced (not the move) on her head, needless to say it didn't do squat "die…you…evil…mean…blue…girl…thing…of…pain" he huffed in-between hops

Now this was just sad, Aura didn't even seem fazed by this (if this surprises you then go back and read the first chapter) "Murphy" no response "Murphy" again, no response "Murphy" do I even have to tell you? "MURPHY!!!!" I yelled

He immediately stopped jumping. "Yes" he responded like he hadn't just been bouncing on someone's head

"You can stop now" I told him

"Stop what?" He asked. Want to know what the sad part is; I had a feeling he would say something like this

I grabbed my ears and yanked on them to numb the mental pain caused by Murphy's stupidity "jumping on Aura's head"

He looked down and saw her there "Ahh!" He screamed. Next thing I knew he was jumping on her head again "die…you…evil…mean…blue…girl…thing…of…pain"

Enough was enough; I grabbed him and put his face right in front of mine "stop that"

"Oke-doke" he replied as if nothing had happened

Aura looked at Murphy with a worried face "what's wrong with him?"

I turned my attention to her and replied "I'm still working on that". Aura sure has changed a lot since I first met her. But back to the story; before I could say anything else (or even Murphy (IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD)) I heard someone cry out

* * *

"It's the human!" I looked around franticly looking for the human, only to find everyone looking at me. Crap. I knew I forgot something

Now in order to advance the story we must go to the stratosphere. Rayquaza was wandering around aimlessly (not much to do up there); when suddenly he was splashed with water when he looked back he didn't see anything, then, for a fraction of a second he saw it; a waterfall was flickering in and out of reality. Now some of you might think it would be reassuring to know what was up with the waterfall; however Rayquaza would disagree "no…it can't be. I-it's impossible" and just like that Rayquaza was off

Later at the Spacial Rift, "do you have any idea what you're implying!?" bellowed Palkia

"You think I would lie about something like this!?" Palkia's lack of trust offended Rayquaza

Palkia sighed "but why now? After all these centuries why now?"

"It doesn't make sense to me either" Rayquaza replied

"What's up dudes?" a new voice asked

"_He's_ returned" Rayquaza was too busy to look at the new face

The new voice cringed "ouch, that's some tough luck there"

"Yeah we know" even Palkia didn't look at the voice

After what seemed like an hour the voice spoke up again "I got it; it's convoluted and unnecessary, but I think it'll work" after that the voice left

"Yeah good luck with that" Palkia waved with the back of his hand

"………..wait, was that who I think it was?" Rayquaza asked

But all Palkia said was "…oh crap"

Back to Bane. Now I knew the Pokémon of the village hated humans, but I still find it hard to believe that they hated reborn's as well (especially one that grew up there) "Kill him!" one mob member who's not important to name yelled

"Cut him up!"

"Drown him!"

"Let him go" I squeaked out. Everyone turned their attention to me

"Well, well, well. Look who we have here" crap, I hate that guy

"Back off Chakra" he swung his fist at me only for me to catch it "go be an idiot somewhere else"

"What's going on over here?" a gruff voice asked. Even after being away for so long I still remembered who's voice that was; Extraxi

Aura ran over to the Salamence "uncle Extraxi, their trying to kill Bane." Yes, you heard her right; this dragon is her dad's big brother (I'm not sure how, but I do know both are related by blood)

After he heard my name he immediately looked over to me. Now on the one hand; I was staring face to face with the most intimidating/scariest person/Pokémon I have ever know, something that remains true to this day. On the other hand; he was also the jolliest guy I ever met "Ha, if it isn't little Bane! Oh, I suppose I can't call you that anymore, ha, ha, ha" not something you'd expect a Salamence to say

"It's good to see you too Elder Extraxi" that's right; this big guy is in charge of the village. It was originally intended to be a shelter for Pokémon hurt by humans, not a place to form a cult. Of course when you gather a bunch of people who don't like another group of people this kind of thing is bound to happen

He just responded by laughing "Bane please; call me uncle, we all know it's just a matter of time" that was a long running joke that went around the whole village

"But sir, he was a human" one stupid Luvdisk retorted

Extraxi cocked his head to the side "…I don't see where you're going with this"

At the risk of his life, the moron (which so happens to be Italian for the 'A' word (my Italian step-dad said so)) replied "humans are evil…"

Ok, jolly Extraxi is gone, time for bad*** Extraxi "I don't believe it" he spat "does anyone else think this too?" the whole mob nodded their heads "so you're trying to tell me that you all still think that Bane; the sweet little Riolu that grew up here is a monster! Before the disaster you all thought the world of him!" most of the Pokémon (including me) craped themselves right then and there. "What's changed!? What did he do to make you all hate him so much!?" Now do you see why he's in charge?

This time a Walrein spoke up "the destruction of the village-" he never got to finish

"Bull****! Bane was the one who got hurt the most, he lost his home and everyone he knew, if I had been here that day Bane wouldn't have been banished!"

"But uncle (take a guess who this is) they are right"

"Not you too Chakra!" I could see it hurt the old dragon to have his nephew agree with this

"I'm sorry uncle, but humans need to be purged from this world"

"Excuse me, am I interrupting something" a new voice interrupted

"Yes, now be gone trash" Chakra demanded

"Hey I know you; you're that pompous jack-off Chakra" the voice replied, I could already tell the two of us would get along

"Who is the fool who would dare to say such things about me!?" Chakra demanded

"That would be me" the voice said as it stepped forward. At that time I almost burst out laughing; Chakra, that freak, had just insulted the legendary Pokémon Arceus. The appearance of the great creator Arceus was humbling for just about everyone in the village (except for me, this wasn't the first legendary I've seen and definitely not the last) which they showed by kneeling before him "oh come on guys you're making me blush" no one moved "that means get up" he said, still with kindness in his voice

It was then that Chakra walked up to him "I take it you're here to rid us of this scourge"

Arceus chuckled "…um, ok" after that he head butted Chakra

The crowd gasped "w-what was that for!?" Chakra demanded

Arceus scratched his head with his paw "…getting rid of the scourge"

Chakra was offended "but you hit me!"

Arceus shrugged (at least I think he did) "well you're the closest thing to a 'scourge' here"

"I meant him!" Chakra pointed at me

Arceus looked over at me "…Bane?" he asked, I just nodded my head "awesome, glad I found you. Up for a quest?" he asked me

I didn't know what to say "um, but I just got back from one"

"That's great" he replied

"It is?" I was confused

"Well yeah, it means you'll be going into this one with momentum" he obviously didn't get it, so I pointed to the spot where my leg had been "well crap" was his reply

"I will embark on this quest" Chakra said

"Nope" Arceus' reply was short and to the point

"Well why not?" Chakra was pretty mad

"Because you're an weenie" yep, the two of us would get along real well

"But you'd let a human do it!?" surprisingly; that wasn't Chakra

"What's wrong with humans?" he asked

"They're evil" came the response "you destroyed the village to punish him"

Arceus sweat dropped "um…we were punishing you guys" then came the collective gasps. "By the way, what did Bane do that was so evil?" No one had an answer. "Ok Bane; you need to go the tree of life"

"Is that my quest?" I asked

But he just responded by laughing "oh hell no. that's just to fix your leg"

My eye were beaming "fix my leg, as in 'good as new'"

"Yep" was his reply

"And then I start my quest?" I asked again

But to my dismay; he started laughing again "nope, you got to do a bunch of stuff before you start your quest"

"Stop!" Aura demanded

"Aura" I whispered

"I lost Bane once, I'm not goanna lose him again. If he goes, then I go"

"Me too" piped Murphy

"Murphy"

Arceus and my friend stared at each other for some time until Arceus finally said "ok"

We were all shocked "really, just like that you're goanna let us go?" Aura asked in disbelief

"Sure, why not?" was his reply "the more the merrier"

"But, shouldn't I see my mom first" truth be told I didn't want to see here missing a leg, she was already paranoid enough about me, she use to warn me that if I wasn't careful enough I would lose a limb, the last thing I wanted was for here to see she was right.

Extraxi walked up to me and said "I'm sorry Bane, but she's no longer with us"

I was horrified "you mean she's dead?"

Everyone looked at me like I was crazy "what are you talking about? I just said she was no longer with us" he replied

"Oh I get it" said Arceus "that 'no longer with us' thing is a human phrase meaning dead"

"It is?" asked Extraxi

That made me feel better "so does that mean she's alive?"

Extraxi gave out a hearty laugh, yep, jolly Extraxi was back "of course my boy! She's still alive and kicking. She just has business somewhere else"

That's a relief, well now that that's out of the way "so where is this 'tree of life'?"

Arceus had a very Zen like face and said in a monkish voice "to find it, you must look beyond what you see" oh no, he did not just go hippy on us

"Uh" I really didn't know how to respond to that

The he laughed "I'm just messing with you. I'm trying to say one deep thing every day"

"Why?" asked Murphy

"Because…you know, I don't remember" was his reply

"How do we get to the tree of life?" I asked again

"Well you'll need a guide" he replied

That was annoying "great, how many people know where to find the tree of life!?"

That caught Murphy's attention "wait, did you say tree of life" we all nodded "oh, I thought you said tree of 'light', I know where the tree of life is" bull****

"Bull****" I replied

Then he turned to Arceus "giant tree, hollow, Pokémon live there, Mew there too, weird slime defending it"

Arceus was wide eyed "y-yeah"

"Ok then, let's go" Murphy cheered

I looked at the god next to me and said "you know; I thought you would be a lot more serious"

"Yeah well, sometimes I need all that pomp and circumstance. But I can't imagine living like that my whole life" without questing his choice in words, we left

Well that's chapter 2. Before I forget; I got a new poll on my profile, check it out, next is the tree of life. Read and review but remember if you can't say anything nice don't say anything at all.


	3. it’s all about who you know

I'm glad to know so many people like this fic so far, it's a real relief. Thanks srgeman, Sanablades, NightCore for reviewing.

**Chapter 3 it's all about who you know**

It was a sign of the apocalypse; Murphy knew where he was going "it's this way" he said for the umpteenth time

"So let me get this straight; Mew, the legendary Pokémon, knows you?" Aura was still having a hard time grasping the concept that our Murphy knew someone like Mew (you and me both Aura)

"What can I say, I'm hard to forget" he bragged

"Yep" I agreed "it's hard to forget someone with server head injury"

"Yep" he replied, the poor guy never found out that was an insult

"So…why didn't you tell us you know Mew?" Aura asked

"It never came up" was his reply, of course

I chuckled "'never came up' he says"

"That's our Murphy" Aura commented

"Yep" I replied

Not to long after that we came to a fork in the road "Murphy, which way?" Aura asked

"Just a sec" he then started to mumble to himself "this way" he said after he finished

Aura was about to say something but I stopped her "don't ask don't tell"

"You were too late" she said, I knew what she meant

"You mean to go _there?_" I asked even though I knew

"Your mom left a day ago"

"Rats" I silently cursed myself; I was really looking forward to seeing _her_ again

"Should we make a stop there?" as if I needed to answer that

I held my hands on my head "read my mind" that got a giggle out of her

"…So Bane, What's it like?" Aura asked

I had no clue what she meant "what's what like?"

"Everything" well that was specific "being a reborn, missing a leg, having been chosen by Arceus himself for a quest. What's it like?"

To tell you the truth; I wasn't sure I knew the answers back then "when I was a human, I hated my life"

Aura, being the down to earth girl we all know and love couldn't understand hating your own life "why?"

A hint of anger entered my voice then "the humans that I used to call 'mom and dad'" Aura looked at me with a questioning look "they used me; I was just a big paycheck to them" keep in mind that Aura was familiar with a few human words

Aura was the kind of person who always tried to see the good in people, translation; she didn't believe me "but Bane, how could someone not love their children?"

"Oh that's right I forgot; human parents always express love to their kids by calling them worthless!" ok, I'll admit it; that was uncalled for

Aura's usually happy face turned sad "I'm sorry Bane"

Say what you want about Aura, but she is the best guilt tripper ever, without even trying "no, I'm sorry Aura" she looked at me a bit surprised "it's just; I hated them. I thought that when I turned 18 I'd be free from them, but then-"

"You died?" she tried

I laughed a bit at that "it wouldn't have been a problem then"

"What was it then?" she asked

I sighed "one night, I overheard them talking about something" she looked at me questioningly "they had a plan, a plan to keep getting money out of me. They weren't goanna let me go Aura, I was goanna stay their prisoner for the rest of my life"

"How were they planning on pulling that off?" she asked worried

I shook my head "I wish I knew, but from what I gathered the reason why they left me to die is because it was too early to try anything"

"And you didn't try to find out what it was?" she asked skeptical

"That's just it; I tried everything I could think of that wouldn't let them know I knew. I tried getting them drunk; turns out they can't hold their liquor. I tried learning psychology and a few illegal things"

"But how could you learn a science without your parents knowing?" she asked

"A friend was teaching me" was my reply

That caught her interest "I didn't know you had human friends"

"Only 2" was my reply "James" I said unconsciously

"Was that the friend who was teaching you?" she asked

I hadn't even realized I let that slip "yeah. James was, to say the least; a genius, he was just 15 and he had gotten masters in psychology and was interning at a prestige's hospital" I looked over at Aura and saw that she didn't have a clue what any of that meant, so I took this time to explain the school system to her (I won't bother including it)

Her eyes widened when she finally understood James' amazing feet "you're serious?"

"I didn't believe it at first either" it was the reason why I can say without a doubt that I the majority of the time I said 'bull****' I was around him

After thinking for a bit Aura turned back to me "but wait; you said you had 2 human friends"

"Chancey" I replied

She looked at me confused "did you say Chansey?

"No; Chancey is a human name" I corrected "he was a quirky little fellow" I chuckled

"Like Murphy?" Aura asked

My eyes widened at that "oh no, he was nowhere near as bad as Murphy"

Aura giggled "yeah, our Murphy I one of a kind"

"That's probably for the best" I responded

Aura gave me a gentle punch "hey, be nice." Not too long after that we both broke out in a laughing fit

"Thanks Aura, I needed that" I said

"Any time Bane" was her response

I sighed "sometimes I really miss those guys"

"I'm sorry you died Bane" I knew that Aura didn't mean it

"Ha, no you aren't, and you shouldn't be. I'm glad I died" not something you hear every day. And it was then I remembered the voice from the car wreck "you want to know what the strangest thing was; just as I losing consciousness I heard a voice say to me 'don't worry kid, everything will be alright.' Guess it was right"

"That _is_ weird" she replied

"Yeah" was all I said "you know; to this day, I still wonder who that was, and how they knew I would be alright"

"I guess we'll never know" boy was she wrong; we would later (much later) learn the identity of that voice; it was the last person I expected

"We're here!" Murphy's voice rang out. When Aura and I reached him we looked in awe at the sight before us; the tree of life

Both Aura and I were in shock as we stared at the huge tree in front of us "it's amazing" I said

"Yeah, the Tree of Life is truly awe inspiring" Aura responded, clearly we weren't thinking the same thing

"I meant it's amazing that Murphy actually got us here" I replied

"That too"

"You guys wait here, I'll get Mew" Murphy said, and with that he was off

Aura looked a little dejected "what's wrong?" I asked her

"It's my fault" she replied vaguely

"What is?"

"That" she pointed to my missing leg

"How" the poor girl wasn't making any sense

"I got you banished from the village" a tear formed in her eye

"I don't blame you Aura; I know you sometimes say things at the wrong time" I laughed a bit

The tear in her eye changed to a glare "watch it"

"Hey you there!" a new voice called out. When Aura and me turned to face the voice we were both surprised; it was a Kabutops "what are you doing here?" he didn't seem too friendly

"We're here to see Mew" I replied eyeing him

"Is that so?" he asked casually

"Yes, it is" I replied now face to face with him

"Really?"

"Sure is"

Aura just stared at us "is this some sort of male thing?"

The Kabutops ignored her and said to me "if I were you I'd leave"

"Oh yeah? Well if you were me, then I'd be you, and if I were you I'd still be here as you walked away, so no matter who you are you can't make me leave" I could tell by the look on his face that I'd gotten him. After that the two of us started screaming at each other, I only remember a little of what we said, but it'd be inappropriate to say in mixed company

"Ok, ok what's going on here?" someone new asked

The Kabutops seemed to know the voice since he stopped yelling when he heard it "I'm very sorry sir" he bowed to someone behind him

When I looked to see who it was I burst out laughing "a Caterpie!" it was then that the Caterpie started glowing, I thought it was evolving, boy was I wrong, it was using transform

"So you're the cause of the ruckus. Ha, funny word ruckus" **Mew** mused

"Mew" I said I awe

"That's my name" he replied. Then he looked at me and Aura "sorry guys but I need you to leave, I can't have trouble makers here"

"But-" before I could make a compelling argument, Mew blasted me with some attack

"Relax, I'm not goanna kill you, just chase you away" relax?! How could someone relax when there're getting shot at?!

"Will you just listen to me?!" I deflected one of his attacks with Aura Sphere

He shot at me two more time "sorry, got to make you leave"

I landed next to Aura after dodging an attack "I thought Murphy said he knew Mew!?" I whispered

"You think he was lying?" she asked

"If he was then I'm goanna kill him" I replied. I jumped away from another attack (not bad for someone missing a leg). It was then that I realized something that pissed me off "hey wait a minute; why are you only targeting the cripple!?" But (of course) he didn't answer me. Not long after that I saw Murphy flying up to Mew

"Hey Mew, how much longer is this goanna take?" he asked

"I should be done any minute now Murphy" I almost got an aneurism just hearing that

"Ok, I'll wait" the little moron said. At this point my brain was so ****ed from Murphy's stupidity that I lost track of time. Finally after what seemed like hours Murphy spoke "hey Bane, I didn't know you were helping Mew" on second thought; I wish he just kept his mouth shut

Mew's eyes widened after hearing that "wait, _he's_ Bane!?"

Murphy smiled and said "yep"

That made Mew sweat drop (it was actually kinda cute) "you know you could have told me that earlier"

"Whoops, I made a boo-boo" he rubbed the back of his head

"You're goanna have a boo-boo when I'm done with you" I said under my breath

"What was that Bane?" it seems Murphy heard me

"I said; you're goanna have a boo-boo when I'm done with you!" I yelled, most likely popping a few blood vessels

Mew looked at his wrist as if there was a watch on it "well we've wasted enough time already, this way Bane" he said as he lead me into the tree

"What about us?" Aura finally said something

"Oh Murphy can show you around" he replied

"Sounds like fun. This way Aura" and with that it was just me and Mew

"Was that really a good idea?" I asked the legendry

"What do you mean?" he asked

"Letting Murphy try to navigate, they're bound to get lost" I replied half amused

"Well at least the Pokémon around here know Murphy" was his answer

That took me by surprise "they do?"

That put a small smile on Mew's face "well, it's hard to forget someone with server head injury"

Ok enough small talk; time to find out how he intends to get me a new leg "so what the plan?"

He turned his head to me "I assume you know about D.N.A?"

I had to try to keep my cover from getting blown "is that a human thing?"

"Cut the crap, I know you're a reborn" that came as a surprise

"Murphy?" I guessed

That made Mew chuckle a bit "actually he tried to cover for you, terribly I might add. Arceus told me." That was good to hear "so back to my original question; you know about D.N.A right?"

"3rd grade science" was my reply

"I'll take that as a; **** yeah" at this point we came to a big room, my first thought was that Mew needed to fire his interior decorator, there was nothing in here. Then I saw it; it looked like a cocoon made of wood, and in the center was an orange glowing spot. "What we're goanna try to do is to recreate your body"

Before he said that my eyes were focused on the wooden mass in front of me, by the time he said 'recreate' my head swerved to him "what!?"

He closed his eyes and lowered his head, a sure sign of a monolog "the tree of life has a unique defense; an orange slime that engulfs any and all intruders, it breaks down their body's for food but keeps their brain waves and D.N.A preserved. When someone is freed from the tree's security, the slime collects minerals and recreates their body" then he looked at me "this is just a theory, but it might be possible to fix your body this way. Worst case scenario; nothing changes; there's absolutely no risk involved. You ready" I just nodded "ok then" he started to glow an eerily shade of orange, before I knew it I was surrounded by slime, it took less than a second for it to engulf me, after it covered me completely everything went dark. The next thing I knew I could make out three figures in front of me. "Ok, it's been two days, let's see if it worked" two days!? It seemed like two seconds to me. When the slime moved off of me I could already tell something was different. I looked down to the spot where my leg had been, no, scratch that; I looked down _to_ my leg

"It worked" was all I was able to say

Sweet! Bane got his leg back…wait, why am I so excited, I wrote it I knew that would happen. Anyway, remember when srgeman killed half of his cast in one chapter? Don't worry; I'm not goanna do that. Although I had know for a while that Bane was goanna lose his leg I had no idea that something like that was goanna happen


	4. Memories of Shade

I think the name of this chapter speaks for its self. Thank you thunder-light1 and NightCore for reviewing

**Chapter 4 Memories of Shade**

"So Bane how's your leg?" Mew asked me.

What I wanted to say include a long drawn out thank you including material from several of my favorite plays, what I said was; "great." Yeah, way to go Bane old pal, that was really poetic

Fortunately for me; Mew seemed to understand the fact that I was in shock "that's good to hear. When you're ready could you head to observation unit 47#?"

I waited a few seconds to answer him for dramatic effect (I guess some things never change) "uh…do you have a map I could use?"

Mew looked at me like I asked some kind of violent question involving his family (trust me; I know what that looks like) "map? Oh…you mean the thing humans use to find their way around" I just nodded my head in confirmation "sorry, we don't have those things here. Maybe Murphy can take you there"

Now I'm not goanna lie; I wanted to throttle that little ****er for even suggesting that, I was scared out of my mind having Murphy navigate before (let's face it people; Murphy is one retarded Mothim) I wasn't about to go through it in twice in one day (ok so it was two days ago, but not to me it isn't) but against every fiber of my being I managed to say "ok" for me; that was a victory…somewhat

Mew nodded "alright then, I'll go get things set up" and with that he vanished…into thin air

"So he knows Teleport" Aura noticed

"Looks like it" I took a step forward only to find myself falling

"Hey Bane…you fell down" no **** Murphy

"Here let me help you" Aura grabbed my hand/paw thing and pulled me to my feet

"Thanks" looks like I still had a long way to go

In about 3 hours I was used to walking with both feet again, unfortunately in that time several Pokémon had gone through that room to see me fall flat on the ground "well, it's time to see what Mew wants"

"It's probably some sort of test to test your skill" Murphy chimed

"That's normally what tests do Murphy" Aura replied

"Hmm…what about-. Oh wait, we're here" finally

We walked in to see what looked to me like some sort of sports arena; in fact that's what exactly what it looked like, bleachers (which were full) and everything "good, you're here" Mew said as he floated above us

"Um…what's going on?" I asked

"Just a little something I prepared to get you ready for your quest" little?

"Yeah" not much else I could say

"So, you ready?" ready? For what?

"Um sure I guess"

"Great, let's get started" he started to float away but then he turned back to us "oh yeah; you two come with me"

"Us?" Aura asked

"Yep, this way please" he said before he led them away. All the while I just stood there and looked like an idiot

About 5 minutes later I heard over the intercom…wait…intercom! How the **** did Mew get one of those. Forget that, how'd he get it to work? "Hello everybody and welcome to the tree dome, with me tonight is a close friend of mine and someone who know today's challenger quite well; Murphy" the ****?

"Thanks Mew, it's great to be here" Murphy's voice sounded over the intercom

"You're welcome, we have a really exciting match up today folks" I couldn't listen to this anymore, so I just walked away "oh what's this; Bane is leaving the arena!"

That brought about quite a lot of booing "I don't even know what's going on here people! And knowing Murphy I want it to stay that way"

"Ouch, that might have hurt if it wasn't true" Mew commented

"You got that right Mew" I was tempted to ask Murphy how stupid he really was

"Ok Bane, you want the long version or the short one?" Mew asked as he teleported to me

"The short one" I thought it was painfully obvious

"You're goanna fight"

"…Who?" I was a bit worried about this

"That guy" he pointed to someone on the other side…how did I miss him?

"Hello, Lucario" crap, not that guy; it was the Kabutops from before

"Well if there aren't any more questions" he teleported back to where Murphy was "let's get ready to rumble!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" crap that was loud

"I'll make this quick" he wasted in attacking, starting off the fight with a Mud Shot to my chest

"Ohhh you are goanna pay for that" I shot an Aura Sphere straight at him, he couldn't dodge it but he did manage to block most of the blast with his blade (try saying that five times fast). Using the opening my attack had made, I dashed right at him; unfortunately he snapped out of it and charged at me with Aqua Jet. I saw it too late.

"Ouch, that had to hurt" I managed to hear Mew comment

I was pinned down on the floor with the Kabutops' blade poised to cut my throat "ready to give up?"

"Let me get back to you on that" claws of pure steel from my paws caught his blade, and with a mighty heave I pushed him off of me. It was then that I realized how I was goanna win this fight; she cursed a lot, wasn't pleasant to be around and most likely scared little children. But something good did come out of my time with Angela; I learned to start thinking like a trainer. I was a Steel and Fighting type, my opponent was Rock and Water, last time I checked Steel beats Rock. And if that weren't good enough, that fact that I was a fighting type meant that I was most likely physically stronger than him. See where this is going

"And Bane is back up! What a startling turn of events"

"Ready for round 2?" he glared at me

"Let's dance" I replied while doing the 'bring it on!' gesture. He summoned rocks from the ground and fired them at me, only to have me turn them to dust with Aura Sphere. As the last rock crumbled I saw a stream of water rush towards me; Aqua Jet

"Take this!" one second before impact I managed to use Metal Claw, I interlocked them and pushed them against his blades. With one big push I managed to knock him down, this fight was getting pretty repetitive

"This fight is really starting to heat up folks" not from down here it wasn't

He charged at me again, I got Metal Claw ready again expecting another attack with his blades, what he did however was suck my energy with Mega Drain…wait a minute; aren't Kabutops' quadruple weak to grass move, then how the **** did he learn that?

"Not good" he was pretty disappointed that he didn't get a lot out of that, I on the other hand would. I socked him with a Drain Punch to his gut. "Why you!" if he wasn't mad before, he sure was now. He summoned more rocks from the ground

"AncientPower again? Oh well" I stopped it once and I could stop it again. With a sneer he let lose his attack, this time however I opted to try something new. Right before the rocks hit me I disappeared from sight, the next time they saw me I was behind him; ExtremeSpeed. One second after that I shot my fist into his back and sent him flying

He staggered to his feet "I'll ****ing kill you!"

I just couldn't understand why he hated me so much "dude, what is with you!?"

"What are you talking about?"

"I mean why do you hate my guts?"

He scoffed "you stupid Steel types are all the same"

My left eye started twitching "WHAT!? You hate me because I'm a Steel type?" even among Pokémon there existed racism

"Your kind always thinks they're better than us Rock types"

"You do know my species starts out as just a Fighting type?"

"Yeah, so?" So!? Was that the best he could come up with!?

I scratched my head trying to think of something "well what about Onix's? They're Rock types but evolve into Steel types" ha, beat that

"They are traitors to Rock types"…the **** man!?

Just like that it hit me "well what about you?"

"What about me?" his eyes narrowed

"You're Rock **and** Water, don't Rock types hate water, isn't being part Water blasphemous or something?"

That got him. After he stuttered some, the same hateful look appeared on his face "die!!" and with that, the battle resumed. He ran at me only to have me jump over him, and while still in the air kick him in the back of the head

"Geezs, someone's cranky" I taunted

"AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!" he bellowed "I'm goanna kill you, I'll make you regret the day you were born!"

I scoffed "who do I look like, Nind-" crap; I can't believe I almost said _his_ name with Murphy around

"Bane you idiot!" Aura yelled, "do you want to get us all killed?"

I turned to face her in the bleachers "it was a slip of the tongue" it was then that I felt a sharp pain in my side "that was a dick move"

"You should never turn your back on the enemy" ok that's it, I'm ending this. I walloped him with my left fist; he was down in no time

"Wow, what a killer left hook" Mew cheered.

The sad thing was; I had seen this kind of senseless hatred before. The victim; an innocent Sneasel named Shade.

* * *

The first time I meet her wasn't anything really note worthy, so I'll skip that. The next time had a little bit more story to it; it was a week after I had seen her for the first time (my mom grounded me for that long), Murphy insisted on coming with me to meet her (see chapter 1), I never found out how he learned. Anyway; it was night time, I told my mom I was staying over at Murphy's place, a statement that wasn't completely untrue, I was planning to spend the night his home, but he always took the long way home, something that would give me a chance to see Shade again.

"We're almost there" Murphy said, something I knew to be untrue; he always says that

"Sure" I rolled my eyes; just like the last times you said it

Murphy was wide eyed "Bane" he started in a hushed tone "you can count very high." A trait I got from having him as a best friend, was it a smart move; no. was it a fun one; **** yeah.

"Well, well, well. Look who we have here" I recognized that voice anywhere; Shade

"Hi evil dark one" Murphy said in a cheerful tone, the sad thing was; he had heard people in our village talk smack about Dark types, he was just too stupid to know they were being mean

She stared at me "uh…who's your friend?"

"Murphy. Don't worry, he's harmless" to everyone but me, the little guy always found new and exciting ways to make my life harder

Her eyes narrowed "you sure?"

I held my hands up in defense "trust me on this"

She looked hesitant "well…alright, but if he try's anything funny-" I stopped her right there

"Relax; Murphy couldn't fight his way out of a large pile of leaves" that wasn't a idiom; I know for a fact he couldn't (and still can't)

Shade opened her mouth to say something, but before she could another voice said "who's there!?"

"Oh ****!" and with that Shade was gone

A few seconds later the source of the voice found us; it was a Heracross from the village. He quickly spotted us "you two? What are you doing here" but I wasn't worried, I came prepared

"I was going to sleep over at Murphy's house, but he got lost" I replied innocently

The Heracross sighed "not again" yep that right, everyone knew Murphy was an idiot. "Come on you two, let's get you home" as he lead us away I wondered; why did Shade run away? Something I would later learn the answer to

* * *

We were right outside to tree of life "here" Mew tossed my some kind of scroll "I'd wait a day to open it"

"Why?" Murphy asked as he snatched it from me and opened it up

"Mew sighed "great, now you have to wait two day"

"What!?" I yelled "what for?"

"To wait for the ink to dry" yeah…there's no way ink takes that long to dry

"Well why don't you just tell us what written on here?" Aura asked. Crap, why didn't I think of that?

"I don't know what's on there, Arceus gave it to me" he replied

"Now what do we do?" I asked

Mew shrugged "beats me, why not head somewhere nearby for a while?"

"So Bane, where to now" Aura asked with a hint of knowing

I smiled at her and replied "next stop; _there_"

And that's chapter 4. Just for the record people; Kabutops really can learn Giga Drain. Next chapter is filler I cleverly disguised as a back-story chapter


	5. Memoires of d all of the above

I'm goanna be completely honest here; this chapter originally was supposed to be a filler, but I'm really happy with how it turned out. Thanks to NightCore for reviewing

A/N the chapter title is referencing a multiple choice answer

**Chapter 5 Memoires of (d) all of the above**

It had been a while since we left the tree of life, not much had happened since then…ok, so nothing had happened (although I'd bet my life Murphy did something stupid). "Aren't you excited Bane?" Aura asked me. She was the only real company I had right now; as Murphy had taken his usual place on my head and was fast asleep, although I'm not sure 'fast asleep' is the right term for it. Murphy's one of those people who sleep through things you don't want them to sleep through, and wake up easily to things you want them to sleep through. Sometimes I think he does all of this on purpose

"About what?"

She glared at me and replied "about getting you leg back, seeing your mom again after all this time, and even getting to see Floret. Floret! It's been forever since you last saw her"

I sighed "it sure has"

"Do you miss your mom?"

"Of course I do" she was the first person to love me unconditionally. It was really odd; I had died before, well that wasn't strange to say, and she was as over-protective as a mother can get, something that most likely had nothing to do with my before mentioned death. From the day I was born…no, even before that she knew I was a reborn. Still she cared for me like I was just a normal Riolu

* * *

Mom took a good long hard look at me "Bane dear"

"Yes _mom_" I wasn't saying 'mom' in a mean way, just different from other words

She sighed "w-why do you say that word so coldly?" she tried to hide it; but I knew she was on the verge of tears

"You mean 'mom'" she nodded "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it that was" any tear that might have wormed it's way into her eyes most likely was gone at that point, replaced with curiosity "I'm just not used to using it that way"

"You mean calling a Pokémon like me mom?"

My eyes widened "that's not what I meant; I'm just not used to calling someone I love that" her head turned to the side, she wanted to know more; I could see it in her eyes "my old, for lack of better words, mom and dad didn't like me. I was just a tool to them" my eyes started to water "I-I-I-I was always s-s-so alone" she had a look of horror in her eyes

"I'm so sorry, I didn't know" she said as he pulled me into a hug

"You know, you were the first person to ever hug me" now as much as I would like, no scratch that; love and adore with the white hot intensity of 1000 suns. I cannot say with a clear and guilt free mind that what I said was not 100% true, Elmina, my real mom (for those of you not keeping score; it's my Lucario mom), was indeed the first person to show me _any_ affection, sure I had friends. But all of us were guys, guy's don't get all touchy feely

I remember at this time she had tears run down her face "how could someone neglect such a precious treasure like you?" she held me tighter "why didn't someone take you away from them?"

"Someone could have, there was a chance. The government was goanna take me from them, but the orphanages were too full, and no one else wanted me so…" yet another thing I was dead wrong about, although at the time no one wanted me, there was in fact someone who could have taken me away from them, something I would later learn about in Dialga _lesson_ on time. But that's another story

* * *

I looked at Aura for a second "what's wrong Bane?"

I knew she would hate me for asking this, but I had to know "Aura…do you know what happened to Shade?" there was someone else I wanted to ask her about, but knowing Murphy he would hear it, wake up, and go insane, more so then usual

She glared at me "oh, _her_" although she claimed it; Aura didn't hate Shade for the same reason as everyone else; I had no idea at the time, even though I do now, why she hated her so much. I couldn't figure it out, even when I remember when the two of them first meet

It was day, Murphy was in a tree and the Sneasel known as Shade glared at me from under her hiding spot; a pile of leaves "you do realize I'll come into your home in the middle of the night and slit your throat for this?"

I shrugged it off "yeah, yeah. I've heard that before" not kidding here people, my human parents actually threatened me like that before, albeit they phrased it a bit more violently. They even tried to make good on it, and that's how my dear audience; I learned to barricade a door with a random assortment of everyday bedroom items. Looking back on it; it was pretty funny. Well back to the story

She sighed "why am I not surprised" before I could say anything; I heard a sound that I'd recognize anywhere; Murphy going nuts

"Someone's coming someone's coming-" I just left him to repeat himself until I needed him again

"You remember the plan Shade?"

She shook her head "not really"

It really didn't matter to me either way "perfect, now hide in the leaves"

Once again she gave me a death glare that could be confused with Mean Look "I'm in the leaves already" and then she muttered under her breath "retard"

"Yes?" Murphy answered

Then she turned to me "remind me again; why do you hang out with him?"

"Just get in the leaves" I said as I pushed her head in, completely covering her. Not a second later I saw a group of adults walking by, heading to…you know, I'm not sure where they were off to. "Now Murphy!"

"What am I doing again?"

"Jump into the leaves, and hurry!"

"Ok" from his perch up in the tree he leapt into he leaves, and when he popped out he was missing his cloak; just like I planed "NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

The adults ran right over when they heard that, among them was Extraxi "what's all the commotion about?"

Although they probably already knew it, I felt compelled to state the obvious "it's Murphy again; he fell in a pile of leaves and his cloak fell apart" we turned to see Murphy shacking and stroking a leave, going Gollum on us

"My precious. My precious" I think it might be a good idea to mention at this time that I didn't really tell Murphy what I expected to happen after he jumped

"…Ok, we'll just be leaving now" and with that they were off. If anything can scare off a super powered Salamence; it was Murphy

Shade wormed out from underneath Murphy "let's just get this over with"

I turned to the still spazing Burmy "come on Murphy, let's go"

That snapped him out of it "ok" he put back his cloak in less than a second, I swear if a Burmy could compete in a cup stacking competition they would dominate.

We made our way into the village that by now was all but deserted, except for one Riolu "Bane!"

I turned to face her "hey Aura"

"What about me?" Murphy asked dejectedly

"No one likes you" I replied

"Yay!" now don't get me wrong; I care a lot about Murphy, I just said that because I knew he would respond funny

By the time she caught up to us, she noticed Shade "oh hi there. Who's your new friend Bane?"

"Oh, this is-" but I was cut off there

"Apples!" Murphy randomly blurted out

Of course everyone ignored him, and he wasn't the person who cut me off. "My name's Shade"

Aura seamed to cringe at the sound of her voice "oh" was all she said

Now I wasn't an idiot; I may not know a lot about girl, but I do know when they're about to kill each other. "Um, Aura, Shade" but just like I expected; they ignored me. Shade ran at Aura and tried to cut her, but Aura was a bit too quick. She responded by jabbing Shade in the gut. That failed to stop Shade, as she swiped Aura's chest. "Guy's just stop!" I held out my hands in protest, only for the strangest thing to happen; some weird shockwave came out of my paws and hit the two fighting girls; Vacuum Wave.

"B-Bane?" both of them were in disbelief, I was too, and Murphy was most likely staring at the sun again.

I stared at my paws awe "whoa" the strange part about it was that Vacuum Wave was an Egg move; an Egg move, or so I was told, was a move that a species of Pokémon used to be able to learn, but now could only be inherited. I knew my mom couldn't use this, so that left the question; who was my dad. Woops, I'm getting off topic

* * *

"She just stormed off one day, called the village a pack off ignorant fools." I haven't meet a lot of logical thinkers in my life. Shade was one of them, and the other was James

"That's what I'm trying to say!" I yelled at my interning friend. Right now I was in the hospital, some crazy psychopath started shooting up people at a performance I was in and hit me in the arm. As luck would have it; it was in Hearthome, the place where James lived and where we stopped frequently. Right now we were in the middle of another one of our pointless conversations

"That's not a word; it's just putting man in front of it, ergo; two words" crap, he had me

"But that's stupid! Why isn't there a boy word for whore!?" yes, we were actually arguing about this

He pushed his glasses up "well, the root of it most likely lies in-" but he didn't get to finish

"So, how's our patient?" asked some doctor that James knew

"He's much better now, Dr. Smith" for the recorded; I have no idea what his name is, so I'll just call him Dr. Smith.

"That's good to hear. By the way James; very impressive" he left after that

"Thanks" James said simply

"For what?"

"For asking me to perform the surgery"

I shrugged "it was just a simple bullet wound, plus I figured you could use something like that on you transcript or whatever"

He just smiled at me and said "thank you Timothy"

* * *

"I see the village" Aura said. Sure enough there it was

"It's been awhile since I was last here"

Aura smirked "I bet you can't wait to see _her_ again"

"I sure can't" what can I say; she had me there. It might be a good idea to point out that this was a different village then the one where I grew up. When we were within (try saying that 5 times fast…again) the village I noticed a lot of Pokémon stare at us "…I think they remember us"

Then from somewhere in the crowd I heard a sweet voice "Bane?"

I turned to face the owner of the voice "Floret?" I looked at the Lopunny in front of me, she sure had grown

"Bane!!!!" she rushed me and pulled me into one of her famous air tight hugs "Bane, I missed you so much. How could you just disappear like that!? You know I love you right?" she sobbed

I returned her hug "I know, I'm sorry" at that point, I held in my arms one of the most beautiful Pokémon I have ever know, the envy of females, the desire of males. She was a sweet and loving girl, but there was one thing that kept me from considering starting a relationship

"Welcome back; big brother" that

Bet you didn't see that one coming huh? By the way people; as a writer I like to get a bit of feedback, what am I doing wrong, right? since everyone seems to have the same idea on my last poll, i put up a new one


	6. Memories of Floret

Alright, time for the next chapter. Thank you NightCore and thunder-light1 for reviewing. I had a bit of technical difficulties with flashback separation in the last chapter, so I found a way to fix that

**Chapter 6 Memories of Floret**

"Oh big brother, I missed you so much" Floret whimpered

Now as much as I enjoy her hugs, they tend to get old after an hour "um, Floret. It's been an hour"

Her eyes snapped open "oh no! I did it again didn't I? She pulled back from the hug. She took a good long look at me, but stopped when her eyes got to my head "Murphy? Oh you silly" she cooed as she picked him up

Being moved from his favorite napping spot seemed to wake him up "huh" he moved his eyes up to Floret's face "Floret!"

"It's good to see you Murphy"

Aura came up to her and gave her a quick hug "how've you been doing Flo?"

Floret's face became gloomy hearing that "o-ok I guess"

"Floret" I said with my voice a bit on edge "tell me the truth"

She sighed "It's happing again" tears started to well up in her eyes. She ran to me and pulled me into another hug "it's even worse this time. Oh big brother, I'm scared"

I patted her on the back "there, there. I'll take care of it, just like I always do" let me explain what _it_ is before going any further; you see, Floret's always been quite the looker, giving her unwanted attention from the opposite sex, whenever they started to get aggressive was when I stepped in to beat the **** out of them, it was my main source of training…yes, it happened that much. "Who is it this time?"

"It's, it's, it's" she was starting to panic

"Calm down Flo" I started gently rubbing her back, something that always seemed to calm her down "I'm here ok, I'll protect you"

She nodded her head "it's _him_ again" crap, not him.

Aura gripped her fists tight "**** that Gonzo" Gonzo was the only one of Floret's suitors to ever come back after getting beat by me, for a Grimer he was pretty persistent

***Flashback***

I was sitting under a tree watching Murphy and Floret play, she adored the little guy. When all of a sudden I heard Floret scream "Floret!" I jumped up to see the cause for it; Gonzo

"Ah my dear Floret, how wonderful it is to see you again" he said while he slowly started moving towards her

"Leave her alone!" Murphy rammed him only to get hurt himself

"Ah, the bug. I remember you" he raised his fist over Murphy "tell Bane I said hi"

"What's wrong Gonzo? Too lazy to tell me yourself?" that was one of my cooler moments

"Bane! What are you doing here?" he hissed

"Well I thought I was relaxing, but I guess I'm kicking you butt instead" I smirked

"AHH!" Gonzo wasn't the brightest fighter. He started launching Mud Slap after Mud Slap at me; I just closed my eyes and raised my dreadlocks. I didn't need my eyes to fight. That made him mad "cheater"

"How is using a natural ability cheating?" he always was a sore loser. He ran at me and swung his fist for a Pound. I just caught it and countered with Force Palm

"AHH!" that got him "I'll be back Bane, and I'll get you and your little buddy too" he ran away after that

"Big brother!" Floret glomped me "you saved me again"

"It was no big deal" not then, but it would become one later on, for some reason Gonzo became stronger after every fight.

***Flashback over***

"So he's back?" Floret just nodded her head "that annoying Grimer"

"He's a Muk now" why am I not surprised

"Don't worry Flo, I'll-" but a familiar voice stopped me

"So there you are my sweet" that sickening voice could only belong to Gonzo "you know you can't run forever, and this time Bane can't save you" just the moment I was waiting for

"Oh can't I?"

"Yes, you can't……Bane!!!" priceless

"In the flesh"

"But you…you…you…you…you" he seemed to be stuck in a loop

I turned to my flying friend "Murphy"

"Yeah, yeah. I'm on it" he flew to Gonzo and bopped him on the head

"What are you doing here!?"

"I'm here to see my sister. The question is; what are you doing here?"

He crossed his arms and replied "I'm here to claim my mate"……..yep, he's dead

Murphy started flying around him "you're in trouble now"

Gonzo glared at him "what do you mean?"

"Bane is goanna make you his *****" Murphy, you gotta love him

I cracked my knuckles and walked up to him "so, are you goanna run away, or do I get to beat you up" just to clarify; this guy had harassed my sister for most of her life, so I was goanna break character and go psycho on him

"Ha, you don't scare me Bane. I'm even stronger then before" as he was showing off a Lucario and two Lopunnys walked up to the scene, at the time I paid them no mind

"So I get to beat you up?" a grin was plastered on my face "excellent." I ran at him, Metal Claw ready. When he hocked a Sludge Bomb at me. I covered my face, it hit me…but I felt no pain "what the?" I whispered under my breath. Before pondering it any further I hit him with my attack. Then it hit me; I was a Steel type, Poison attacks couldn't hurt me…sweet

"What!!??" Gonzo yelled

"Guess you didn't do your homework; Steel types aren't affected by Poison attacks…at all" it felt so awesome saying that

That got him panicking "um…listen, maybe we can work something out" I'm sure we could; I beat him senseless and he cries like a baby.

My eyes bulged "work something out" I said in a whisper "work something out" I said even louder "work something out!!" I yelled "what is there to work out!? As far as I can see it; you're a creepy stalker, and I'm goanna enjoy turning you into a mushy paste!" I swear the guy pissed himself. I remember the last time I fought him

***Flashback***

I was on by knees, the poison from Poison Gas was really getting to me "get…away…from…her" was all I could say as Gonzo crept towards a helpless Floret

"Now you're mine" he said with lust dripping from his voice. All hope was lost, and then I heard a familiar voice

"Dun, dun, dun, dun. Murphy to the rescue" he said as he hopped to me with two berries; a blue one and a pink one "eat up Bane, I'll distract him" he dropped the berries in front of me before I could say anything "!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" he yelled as he charged Gonzo

"What the-?" Gonzo turned around to see Murphy jump at him

"Banzei!!" he landed on his head and started jumping up and down. I knew I didn't have a lot of time left so I ate both berries at once. I felt the effect almost immediately

I was back on my feet in no time "Murphy!!!" Floret yelled, the poor guy had gotten trampled by Gonzo. If it hadn't been personal before, than it would have been now.

I dashed towards Gonzo. In 5 seconds my fist was in his stomach "Die!!!"

"Oh poor Murphy" Floret ran to pick the little guy up

"I like apples" he said in a dazed voice

"You brave, brave, little Burmy" she held him close

By that time Gonzo's head was in a tree truck "get me out of here!"

"Not until I get you to cry!"…what!? You know what this guy did. But I hit him too hard and his whole body got stuck in the tree, I never found out how he got out. "You ok Murphy?" the poor guy couldn't afford anymore brain damage

"I see lots of sparkle sparkles" he sounded even more out of it

"Yep, he's fine" I could always count on Murphy to come to my aid when I was in trouble. Did he always help?...that's debatable.

***Flashback over***

"Now come on, what would Floret think?"

"Kick his ***!"

I smiled at him "that answer your question?"

"No!!!! All those Rare Candies I ate, all for nothing" before I go on, let me just point out one thing; yes, he was talking about the leveling up Rare Candies, but Pokémon call them that not because it's what humans call them, it's just because they're rare.

"Rare Candies? Is that how you got stronger?"

"Of course you idiot!" ok, I just had to laugh at that

"Dude, you do know eating that many is bad for you right?"

"What do you mean?"

"Let's just say; that something shrunk" his eyes widened

"NOOO!!!!" after that he ran away in disgrace too bad I didn't get to pound him into dust though

Floret ran up to me and pulled me in another one of her famous hugs "oh big brother! Thank you so much"

"No problem Flo"

"Did she just call you 'big brother'?" I heard a male voice ask; it was one of the Lopunnys from before.

Then the Lucario walked up to me "Bane?"

I smiled at her "hey mom" one second later the air was being squeezed out of me

"Bane!" she started to cry "my baby. You came back. You came back to me"

"Mom…need…air" I was still chocking

She loosened her grip and wiped away a tear from her eye "I'm sorry sweetie, it's just…I thought you were dead"

"That would be too easy" I chuckled

A gentle smile crept on her face "oh, I missed my baby boy" she cooed

"Mom. Not in front of my friends" I wined

"Oh come on, you're never too old to hug to hug your mom"

"Fine" I sighed

She took a good look at me "look at you; all grown up, it seems like just yesterday I was still nursing you" eww, I don't need to remember that

"Why do you have to keep bringing that up, half the time I would have rather starved"

"Well I miss those days" she still hadn't let go of me

"What's all the commotion about? I was in the middle of my afternoon nap" an elderly and 'dusty' voice asked

"Elder Flint" the female Lopunny said

"Morning Mlaine" Flint greeted, the old Torkoal squinted at me "Bane? Is that you boy?" I nodded "well what do you know. How've you been my boy?"

"Fine elder"

"Oh come off it, you don't have to be so formal with me. I thought we were pals" and yes; he is trying to sound 'hip'

Now before I go any further, there are some things I should explain; the two Lopunnys were Floret's parents. Yes she was my sister, but we weren't related by blood, she was my 'bond sister'. A bond relative is someone who is related to you by way of occupation. This was my village's sister village, as such there was a temple to Latios here. This made Floret's mom and dad my 'bond parents'. Trust me, it makes sense.

"It's great to see you again Bane" Kube, Floret's dad, said

"Indeed, Floret really missed you a lot" Mlaine finished

"It's good to see you too"

"So Bane old boy, what brings you out here?" Flint asked

Now this was the tough part; do I tell them about the quest, or not. This was a delicate situation that required careful forethought and choice of words, but Murphy beat me to it "Arceus sent us on a quest" that brought a loud gasp from the audience

"Murphy, it's not funny to joke about the great Arceus" Floret trembled

"But it's true. Tell them Bane" great, he just had to drag me into this

"…Well…Murphy's right"

"Bane" mom's tone was low

"Do you have proof?" asked Flint

"We have the scroll" Aura pointed out

"Hey yeah, we do have that" I pulled the scroll out and put it in front of Flint, he looked at it for a bit

"Yep they're right" he said nonchalantly

Mon's eyes widened "they are!?"

"Look at this paper; it's a material told about in legends of the gods" well that was convenient

Mom looked at me "Bane, you have some explaining to do"

Well now that I have the back stories out of the way, the plot can really start. Next chapter; Bane and the other get a cryptic clue about where to start


	7. Hey dude where's my quest?

It's time for Chapter 7, the one with the lame movie reference as a title. Thank you peacebearer74 for being the only person to review. In this chapter I do some heavy foreshadowing, so if like stuff like that then you're in for a treat. Well, on with the story

**Chapter 7 hey dude where's my quest**

"-And that's what happened" I had just finished telling everyone what had happened from when I left the village to now. We were all inside of the hut where Flint lived, apparently humans lived here before

"You lost your leg!!!???" mom was having a panic attack "how!?"

"I already told you; some psycho shot me"

"Wow, Bane I had no idea" Aura gasped

I turned to my bug friend "what about you Murphy; you following any of this?"

"I think so; you met an Eevee who can speak in tongues, went to collect the 8 magic talismans to gain entry to the chamber of secrets, but before that you did an interpretive dance and evolved. Next when you got to the Land of Oz you faced the wicked witch of the west, after you beat her you were gunned down by Scarface"…I'm not goanna even ask how he knows about all those thing

"…Sure…let's go with that" why did I even ask?

"So what's your plan now?" Flint asked

I shrugged "wait for the ink in the scroll to dry"

"Why does it need to dry?"

"Because Arceus seems to enjoy ****ing with us"

"That's why we came here; we had some time on our hands" Aura explained

"Well that makes sense" Flint said to himself

"Elder; shouldn't you get back to your nap?" Mlaine asked

"Ah ha. I knew I was forgetting something. Well wake me before you guys leave ok"

"Will do Flint" I replied. He was gone in a few seconds

"So we just wait now?" Aura asked impatiently

"Not much else we can do" I said

Floret's eyes seemed to pop out. She got up and ran to me "come on big bro. let's go to the river" ah the river, it was a place that held a lot of memories for us.

I chuckled "sure, let's go"

"Yay" and with that she dragged me off, she could be pretty strong when she wanted to. Aura and Murphy followed close behind.

***Later***

Not to long after that we were at the river "come on big bro" Floret beckoned me

I sat down at the edge of the river, taking in all the familiar sights, sound, smells. Until Floret pushed me in "What then?"

"Got you" she giggled

"Oh that's it; you wanna play rough? I can play rough" I charged an Aura Sphere in my hand

Floret looked at me funny "what are you-" and then it hit her "no. No. Don't do it"

"Whoops" I fired it near her feet, making a splash big enough to soak her "ha, that worked better then Force Palm"

"Big brother" she whinnied. Just then something pushed me face down into the water

"Come on Flo, let's show Bane a little girl power" Aura, I really should have seen this coming

"I'm goanna be in pain aren't I?" instead of answering my question Aura flipped me so I was on my back, then Floret plopped down on my chest giggling while Aura sat on my legs "no fair" luckily we were in a shallow part of the river, so was able to breathe. I was living every straight guy's fantasy; two hot girls on top of me, now to get them off. I was desperate "Murphy"

He stopped whatever it was that he was doing to come to me "yes?"

"Do you see something wrong with this picture?" I motioned to the girls

He stared at them for a bit "oh, oh, oh. I got it; they're on you"…I'm goanna be honest; I didn't expect him to get it right

"Good, now help me get them off!"

"Ok" he flew up to Florets face, held out his little stubby arms and said "huggys" check and mate, Floret was a sucker for both hugs and anything cute.

"Don't give in Floret!" Aura yelled, but we all knew it was in vain

"Oh come here" she pulled Murphy into a big smothering hug, got off me (finally) and sat down by the edge of the river "sorry Aura, he's just too cute"

Aura turned to me with a face that was a cross between a death glare and one holding in a laugh "**** you Bane"

"Hey, I thought you got over that" oh yeah, that felt good

"Idiot" she bonked me on the head

"Just like old times, huh big bro?" they sure were

***An unspecified amount of time later or earlier in an unspecified location***

The four legged figure was walking at a nerves pace "this kind of thing is never good news, but maybe we'll get lucky" here was the dilemma; after some snooping around, something had been discovered about Bane. It was either good new or bad news, chances are it was bad. And now this poor soul had to tell the boss "Hey Arc"

"What's up Dialga?" he turned to face her

"Um…I think I have some bad news" she looked down at her feet

"Is it about Bane's temporal axle?" he guessed

She stared at him in bewilderment "how did you-"

"I have my sources" he replied shrewdly

"But I am your source!"

"We don't know if it's a problem yet Dia" he broke eye contact with her to stare out into space "all we know is that Bane's current existents is its self a paradox"

Her eyes started twitching "since when is that a good thing!?"

He shrugged "I'm just saying it might not be a problem" then he sighed "but I know what will"

Dialga turned her head "Arceus?"

"Come on Dialga, we got work to do"

***In another unspecified location***

A single figure was peering into a mirror, but the odd thing about it was that it wasn't showing his reflection; but Arceus and Dialga "so foolish" he turned away from it and looked up at nothing in particular "do you really think that Rayquaza found that waterfall because he was lucky?" he started chuckling (AN: for those of you who are wondering; yes, this is the big villain) "so foolish"

***Finally back with Bane***

"What do you mean 'it's ready'?!" not too long ago we returned to the village, only to find the ink on the scroll to be visible

"Just what it sounds like; it's ready" Flint replied

I sighed "and here I thought it would take another day" looks like I would have less time the rest then I thought "So what's it say?"

Flint cleared his throat and started to read "the three undying body's, face them in combat. Look near these masters; lightning, body, sky. There you will find that which you seek"…I swear, I hate Arceus so much

"Great, a riddle" Aura looked really dejected

"Wait, there's more" we all looked at him "sorry about the riddle guy's, but what would a quest be without a few puzzles. Love Arceus"…really!?

I got up "well, we know where we have to go now" everyone looked surprised

"We do?" Aura asked

"Yeah. The riddle wasn't too hard" just for the recorded; I had solved it by that point

"That's my big brother" Floret said proud

"Oh, look at my big smart boy" my mom started to smoother me again

"Mom" I complained "not in front of everybody"

"Well, let's get going then" oddly enough it wasn't Aura who said this, but Floret

"What!?" both of her parents yelled

"Floret, what are you thinking!?" her mom asked

"I'm thinking that I'm goanna go with my big brother" she huffed. Now this was weird; Floret was always a good girl and did what her parents told her to do, this time however seemed to be different

"But Flo, it'll be dangerous" I argued. There was no way I was letting my little sister come on this quest, she might get hurt, or worse

"But Murphy's coming" ****. I was officially out thing to argue with

I sighed "ok you can come"

"What!?" her parents yelled…again

"But Bane-" her mom started

"She got me; Murphy's coming with us, if he can then Floret should be able to handle it too" that shut them up

"I guess you have a point" her dad admitted

Aura had a small smile on her face "well Flo; welcome to the team"

***Floret the Lopunny has joined the party***

Murphy started looking around franticly "who said that?"

"Who said what?" I knew I was goanna regret asking

"' Floret the Lopunny has joined the party' who said that!?"…and that's my cue to change the subject

"Well guys, I guess we're off now"

"So soon?" my mom asked dejected

"Sorry mom, can't keep the gods waiting"

"I guess. It's just that you just got back" she pouted

"At least you know I'm coming back this time" I hoped that would comfort her

"True. Oh I'll miss you Bane" she reluctantly broke off the hug

We made our way to the edge of the village and took one last look "well guy's; we're off"

(AN: Yay massive foreshadowing time)

***With Arceus***

"-And that's the situation" the god had just finished briefing the other legendary Pokémon about the current state of affairs

"What kind of sick joke is this!!!???" bellowed Heatran

"It's no joke; Rayquaza saw one himself" Arceus said

That put everyone on edge "Is…is that true Rayquaza?" Ho-oh asked apprehensively

The green serpent look depressed "y-yes, it's true"

"We're all doomed" Darkrai looked like he was about to faint

"Now come on guy's; it's not that bad" the head god attempted to lighten the mood. Everyone looked at him with a 'are you serious?" look "ok, so it is that bad" then he said under his breath "lousy ingrates; try to make them feel better and this is what you get" then he turned back to them "but I'm sure we can pull off another miracle. Right everybody?" everyone responded with half hearted cheers. His eyes slanted "ok everyone calm down, you're being too loud" he said sarcastically

"But how did he come back?" Lugia asked

"We didn't kill him, just seal him. And he's not back quite yet, we still have some time"

"How could this happen?" Shaymin asked

Arceus looked at her and replied "we all knew it would happen one day" then he sighed "but why so soon?"

"Hey that reminds me; what's with that Lucario?" Uxie asked

(AN: by now you might be wondering 'where is this' or 'what does this place look like'. Well I left that part out on purpose to make this scene feel more dramatic)

"You mean Bane?" Uxie nodded his head "he's plan B"

"What!?" Groudon bellowed "relying on a mere mortal. You've lost your edge Arceus"

Arceus glared at the massive god "ok smart guy; what's your big plan? Go on, I'm dying to hear it" that shut him up. Then he turned back to the others "listen people; as of now we don't even have a plan A. That means that until we get one Bane's our only hope. I don't like it any more then you" he stared solemnly at the floor "I never wanted to get people like them involved in our fight. But I just can't see any other way"

Mew flew up to Groudon's head and bopped him "way to genus" (AN: I don't know about you guy's; but I laughed so hard when I thought that up)

"Wha- what did I do?"

"It's your fault that Arceus is depressed" Regigigas explained

"Great, now what do we do?" Raikou complained

***Back with Bane 2 days later***

"Hey Bane; I think I can see the place you were talking about up ahead" Murphy called out from the sky

"Good, because I thought he had gotten us lost" Aura complained

"For the last time; juts drop it! How was I supposed to know there was an underground river there?" at least the nagging would stop. It was then that I saw it "well guy's; we're here"

Well that's chapter 7, as you can see I love to foreshadow. Next chapter I revile the answer to the riddle, but until the; can anyone guess what it is?


	8. What happens in New Mauville

Finally!!! I've been waiting for this chapter. Now the fun really starts, no more chapters filled with back-stories, the quest (or at least the first part) finally begins. Sorry it took so long; I had technical difficulties. But I fixed them (Yay for me). And so now the saga continues

**Chapter 8 What happens in New Mauville-**

The four of us watched the city under the cover of darkness, taking in the alien sights "so…where are we again?" Aura asked the question on everyone's mind

"New Mauville" I answered

"New? What happened to the old one?" Murphy asked

Aura sighed "There wasn't one; they just call it 'New'"

"Um, actually there is an Old Mauville" it was Kinda awkward for Murphy to be the right one for a change

"What happened to it?" Floret sounded worried

"Beats me" I shrugged

Aura shook her head "Ok we've gotten seriously off topic; why are we here?"

"The riddle said to look for 'the three masters' right?" everyone nodded "I think the 'masters' are gym leaders; 'lightning' refers to the Electric type gym leader"

"So what; we beat him or something?" Aura asked itching to get started

"I don't think so" we all looked at Murphy "the riddle said to 'fight the three undying bodies' and 'look for the three masters' I think the 'masters' are merely landmarks to help us find 'the three undying bodies'"…holy crap, it happened again

"Looks like 'Smart Murphy' decided to show up" 'Smart Murphy' is what we call Murphy when he is experiences a strange unexplainable moment of profound genius

"…Ok. Well moving on; we have a bit of a problem"

"What is it big brother?"

"Well…this city just happens to be 'the city that never dies' for the Hoenn region"

Murphy perched on my head, a spot he loved even as a Burmy (of course now it was easier to walk with him on me) "City's die?" No, that wasn't a classic stupid Murphy moment; 'the city that never dies' was a term made by humans and used only by humans (ok so there might be an exception or two). In fact it was probably the first time I had said the phrase period.

"No…well yes maybe, but that's not what that means" I struggled to find the right words

"Oh I get it; it's a human thing" Aura cleverly deduced. Had she been a reborn like me I had no doubt that she would have blown every cent she ever got on detective novels in her human life. When I first told her about them (after explain the concept of novels) she went 'hyper Murphy' on me, when Murphy did that it wasn't a big deal, Aura however was the same size as me. Not pleasant

"Yep. Basically it refers to a city that is always active…even at night"

Murphy still had a hard time grasping this "But isn't that when people sleep?" Again; this wasn't a stupid Murphy moment, many human behaviors are alien to Pokémon, this being one of them.

"And didn't you say; 'this city just happens to be 'the city that never dies' for the Hoenn region'? Does that mean there's more?" Ah Aura, great timing

"Yes to both. Now; where to begin" I had no clue where to start, there was a lot I had to explain "each region has a 'city that never dies', these city's all have one thing I common"

"A gym" Aura guessed

"…Ok two things; one is a gym, the other is" I paused for dramatic effect "the Game Corner"

Murphy was ecstatic "Cool! A place to play games" once again this was not- you know what; I'll just tell you when he starts acting…being stupid again

Had Murphy not been on my head I would have shaken it "not exactly; it's a gambling insinuation"

"You mean like those casinos you told us about?" Floret spoke up for the first time in awhile

"Exactly" I nodded my head

Aura sighed "ok we've gotten seriously off topic…again; why is this a problem?"

"It's a problem because even at night this place will be crawling with humans" now they understood. And then it hit me "oh ****"

"More bad news?" Aura asked dejected

"Yeah; our species' aren't common in this region. None of us" this was just perfect

"And?" she didn't quite get it but I could tell that she could see where this was going

"Every Pokémon Trainer in the city is goanna be after us" my life official sucks

Murphy shrugged "So? We just sneak around"

I wasn't in the mood for his ideas "Murphy that's-" just then a light bulb went off in my head "-brilliant!"

"It is?" both Aura and Floret asked

"Of course; Aura and I can just walk down there and sneak around with Aura Sensing" I can't believe I got that idea from Murphy

"Duh" she hit her head "why didn't I think about that?"

"Just be careful" Floret warned

"We will" I replied as the two of us went into the city

***Scene Break***

Aura and I were hiding in an alley, both behind dumpsters on opposite side facing each other trapped by a spontaneous parade made up of drunken people "So this isn't normal?" I had spent the last half hour explaining the finer points of city chaos to Aura

"Nope" I replied dejected

"Any clue when they'll be done?" she sighed

I sighed "when they run out of booze"

Aura of course didn't feel that that was a specific enough answer "and when will that be!?"

I peered over to see the spectacle and then turned back to face Aura "at this rate it might be a few days"

"Why am I not surprised?" she sweatdroped

You're probably wondering who we got into this mess, unfortunately there's not much of a story; we just got stuck between two groups of humans and had to hide out here. "Hey, there's a couple of wild Sinnoh Pokémon over here" some random human I didn't see yelled

"Did they find us?" while Aura had no clue what Sinnoh was she still knew what they meant by 'wild'

I looked over at the crowd to find them running off to the side "nope, we're in the clear"

"Well that's a relief" Aura took a deep breath and got up "but what's a 'Sinnoh Pokémon'?"

"Well Sinnoh is a region, right now we're in Honen. Sinnoh Pokémon refers to Pokémon 'native' that region, Pokémon like-" and that's when it hit me "Mothim and Lopunny!"

"You mean they found Murphy and Floret!?" Aura panicked

"I think so" I silently cursed myself "what were we thinking leaving those two alone, we don't even know what we're looking for!"

"Now's not the time Bane" Aura intervened "right now we have to save Murphy and Floret"

"Yeah…I just hope they're alright" I was still a bit panicky

***Scene Break***

Aura and I had split up to look for our doomed friends (at least we could find each other with aura sensing) by the sound of the mob it appeared that both of them were still safe…for now. I was leaping rooftop to rooftop classic matrix style (how come no one saw me?). "Bane!!!" a shrill voice cried out; Murphy

I found him hiding under a dumpster in an ally…hopefully not the same one I had hid behind before because that would be embarrassing "Murphy! You ok?" I jumped of the roof to get to him

"Yay, Bane's here! I'm saved" yep, he's alright

"What happened?" I questioned my small friend

"Well you and Aura were taking so long that I thought something happened to you. So me and Floret came to save you"…great

"And how's that working out for you?" I asked smugly

"Oh pretty good, I found you after all" yeah…I really should have seen that coming

"Where's Floret?" I was still worried about my poor little sister

"We got separated when the humans started chasing us. I don't know where she is" well it's not like I expected a lot of information from Murphy

"Great…just great. Man we are so boned"…what!? I was feeling pretty hopeless.

"I think it went this way!" someone from the mob said, they were getting close

"Bane! What are we goanna do!?" he started shaking uncontrollably

"Let me think" I looked around in the dumpster for a bit, than I found it "bingo!" I pulled out a robe…with hood "it's a good thing that my kind is shaped like humans" I put it on and put Murphy inside it too, then I sat down and made sure that none of my body was showing…just in time too

"Hey homeless guy; did you see a Mothim fly by here?" someone from the mob asked. I motioned to the left "hey thanks" and with that they left

"Wow Bane, that was amazing!" Murphy beamed as he squirmed out of the robe

"Thanks, now we need to find Aura and Floret" I wasn't too worried about Aura; I knew she could take care of herself, but I was terrified about what might happen to poor Floret.

"Yay! Rescue mission, let's go!"…well at least he was energetic

"Yep" I nodded "do you have any idea where Floret might be?" I had a feeling I knew the answer but felt compelled to ask for some unknown reason

"Nope" he replied as he perched on my head

"Great" I sighed" I said it once and I'll say it again: great…just great. Man we are so boned" I got up and leaned against the wall

"Why don't you look for her with your aura sensing skill ability thingy?"…crap. How many more times is Murphy goanna one-up me today!?

I sweatdroped "…crap…why didn't I think of that?" I closed my eyes and my dreadlocks rose "I think I see them!" I grabbed Murphy

"Yay. Rescue time!" that Murphy, what am I goanna do without him?

"Hang on you two; help is one the way" I mumbled to myself. And with that I took off after their aura

"Bane, are we there yet?" my small companion asked

"Oh no. we're not starting that!" there was no way in hell I was goanna get stuck in an 'are we there yet' scene

"Oh man" he said dejected

Then I saw them "Floret! Aura!" unfortunately they were both being chased by humans…great

"Bane!" Aura called back when she saw me

"Big brother!" Floret yelled looking like she might have a heart attack

"Murphy!" Murphy cheered. Had it not been a bad time I would have called him out on his stupidity.

We ran to each other, Pokeballs flying around us as we talked "man am I glad to see you two" I said, relived to have both girls back

"What now!?" Floret panicked

"We run for it!" Aura yelled. Oddly enough none of us had gotten hit by a single Pokeball…then again most of the people throwing them were drunk

"Where!?" Floret was still panicking

"There's a desert nearby" I suggested "maybe we can hid out there"

"Good enough for me" Aura replied, and with that she grabbed Floret and took off with ExtremeSpeed. I grabbed Murphy and flowed suit. "Where is it?" she asked when I caught up

"I think we just keep going straight and we'll find it" I replied as an Ice Beam grazed my head

"THINK!!!!????" needless to say (even though I'm goanna do it anyway) that response didn't make Aura happy

"I've never been here before!" I jumped over a couple of Vine Whips

"Well that's just great" Aura grumbled

"I think we're almost there" I said as dodged a…coconut!? Who threw that!?

"I think I see it!" Aura yelled

"Jump!!!!!!!!!!!!" I yelled as who-knows-how-many Hyper Beams barreled towards us. Aura and I looked at each other, jumped for the desert, and then-

Ha. Epic cliffhanger, man that was evil. So by now I'm betting you guys know the answer to the riddle, if not then you must not have played Pokémon Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald much, oh well. FYI I got a new poll on my profile; now instead of job's it's titles. Read and review but remember; if you can't say anything nice don't say anything at all


	9. Sand Trap

Sorry my updates are getting further apart in date, but school is pretty tough. Thank you Waveripple of Team Sunrise and thunder-light1 for reviewing

**Chapter 10 Sand trap**

The lone figure was busy typing on his laptop, when suddenly he heard the door open. He turned around to find…Murphy?

"Hey Oathkeeper" he flew over to the human

"Oh hey Murphy" he greeted "was there something you wanted?"

"Um…about chapter 10"

"Yeah"

"Doesn't 9 come after 8?"

"…"

**Chapter 9 Sand trap**

Sand, sand and more sand. That was all we could see, it was quiet, too quiet "hey guys! I saved the coconut!"…scratch that

"Uhh…what happened?" Aura asked feeling groggy

"I think we got chased by a bunch of humans" Floret answered "yuck. I got sand in a bad place"

"Where?" I asked feeling slight concern…it was just sand for crying out loud

"…I'd rather not say" she answered meekly/blushing

I winced "yeah, that must be uncomfortable"

"Where'd she get it?" Murphy asked, ah the joy of innocence

"In a type of place you'll never see" I replied holding back a laugh

Aura slapped me "Bane! What's wrong with you!?"

"Oww" I held my poor face

"So what now?" Aura asked ignoring me

"Maybe we should find some shelter" Floret suggested

"Yeah, that's a good idea" I replied getting up

"But where do we go?" Floret was getting worried

"I think we should just stay here" we all stared a Murphy "that's what I'm supposed to do when I get lost"

I sweatdroped "yeah…I don't think that's goanna work this time"

"Let's just start walking, we're bound to find something" Aura said

"Good idea" and with that we started walking.

***a bit later***

The wind was picking up and dust filled the air, making it hard to see "I'm scared, what if something come and attacks us" Floret wined

"Don't worry Flo, you're safe with us" Aura reassured the girl

I looked back at my little sister "yeah, and besides what's goanna attack you all the way out-" but I didn't get to finish, I was attacked by a small blur. I didn't have any time to say anything as it knocked me down to the ground and started cutting me

"Bane!" Aura yelled as she ran to my aid, Metal Claw ready she swiped at my mysterious attacker. It jumped to the side and fired what looked like a Swift attack. Still using Metal Claw Aura deflected the attack, unfortunately some of the stars started heading towards "Floret watch out!"

Floret quickly got out of the way with Bounce; the jump carried her towards us. The attacker just stared at her and screamed. It jumped on me, then on Aura's head, and finally at Floret, pushing her further away. They both landed on the ground just as the dust started to settle (figures) and at last we could see our assailant; a Sandslash. I was about to start yelling at him, but he beat me to it "you idiot! Do you have any idea what you almost did!?" I shook my head. Then he pointed to the spot I was about to step on "you almost stepped on this irreplaceable artifact" I looked to see him pointing to what looked like a pot "well, anything to say for yourself?"

"You could have just told me to stop" I replied

He stared at me blankly for a few seconds and then said "…whoops"

Aura was fuming "whoops!? Whoops!? You attack Bane for no good reason and all you can say is whoops!?"

The poor little guy was sweating like crazy "I mean-well you see-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I" he must have been panicking "please don't hurt me" I feel bad for him, even though he attacked me, I know firsthand what Aura's wrath feels like

"Ok Aura let's just calm down. You're scaring the poor guy" Floret steeped in to quell Aura's anger. The Sandslash took one look at Floret and was out. When Floret saw this she started to blush "y-yes"

He shook his head "sorry about that"

"What's the big deal with this pot anyway?" Murphy asked staring at it

The Sandslash looked at him and replied "it's a relic from-" he paused "what's with the coconut?"

"What coco…oh _that_" I replied remembering Murphy still had it for some reason "someone threw it at us"

"Well that doesn't make a lot of sense" he quipped

"Why not?"

"We're in a desert, the coconut's tropical" I was a bit stunned by his knowledge of coconuts

"Yeah, so?"

"How'd it get here?"

"Beats me" I knew full well that I might have been able to pull off a Monty Python and the Holy Grail thing there, but I just wanted to get things going

"…So what now?" Asked Aura

"Well I was trying to get that artifact out so I could bring it back to dad" he mused. As he said this I reached down and effortlessly picked it up. When he saw what I was doing he waved his arms around in a panic quietly yelling "Wha- you don't just- come on man- the hell!?"

"I'm just trying to help you out" I glared at the panicking rat

"Sorry" he paused for a second "hey, if it's not too much trouble…would you mind helping me get that back to my dad?"

I cocked my head to the side "you mean you can't?"

His eyes widened "Are you kidding!? That thing weighs a ton"

"It does?" I asked as I one hand juggled it

"What are you doing!?" the poor guy looked like he was about to have a heart attack

"Sorry"

"That relic is made with meta-stone, a building material that is as heave as a rock and as fragile as glass"

I wanted to ask him how he knew that, but there was a more pressing question on my mind "um…that sounds kinda stupid"

He sighed "if only the Pokeztecs had figured that out" I remember hearing about them; they were some ancient civilization who were big art guy's, it was also thought that they could communicate with Pokémon. I used to think that was ridiculous…then I became a reborn

"They made this?"

"Yep, this desert is the ruins of their capital"

"Wow" then I remembered the thing in my hand "oh yeah, where's your dad?"

"He's this way, follow me"

***An uneventful period of time later***

"He's in there" the Sandslash said

"Where?" Floret couldn't see anything due to the fact that the wind started to pick up again

I reached out my hand expecting to feel stone, but instead I felt cloth, it was a tent "what the-?" I walked in and the first thing I saw was a curtain like thing, most likely to keep sand out

"Arc? Is that you?" an older sounding man asked

"Yeah dad, I'm back" he went under the curtain

"Oh good. How did it go?"

"I got it"

"Wonderful. I'll get ready to inspect it onsite"

"No dad you don't understand; I _got_ it. It's here"

"What!? Son that thing is made out meta-stone, how did you even pick it up?"

"I had a little help. Hey, uh…Bane was it? Could you come in her?"

"Um sure" I walked through the curtain to find a big surprise; a human

"A Lucario? That explains it" the human said in the same voice as Arc's (?) dad. I was wide eyed "that's right; you must be confused about this" everyone else came in

"About what dad?"

"Me being you're dad"

"Oh that" he turned to us "I'm adapted"

"Oh, well that explains...hey wait!? How can he understand us?"

"Have you ever heard the rumors about the Pokeztecs being able to talk with Pokémon?"

"Yeah"

"They weren't rumors" I left it at that

"What exactly are you doing here anyway?" Floret asked

"Well you see; I'm an archeologist, and my son here is my assistant. We're investigating the ruins here"

Arc started to talk "We were going to the main ruins" then he glared at his dad "but dad here had to go and throw out his back. And he won't go to a hospital till we do!"

"I said I was sorry"

"…You know we could help" I offered

"You can?" Arc asked surprised

"Sure, why not" Aura replied

"Tha-that would be great" his dad said pleasantly surprised

"Well Arc, lead the way"

"Um…sure"

***Yet another uneventful period of time later***

"Well, here we are" Arc announced. Before us was what looked like a mound of rocks with a small opening

"Wow" Aura said in awe

"It's amazing. Isn't it big brother?"

Arc flinched "big brother?"

"Forgot to tell you?"

"You think!?"

"I haven't said anything yet" Murphy cheered

"Lucky us" I mumbled

"Well what are we waiting for? Let's go in" Aura said

"Yeah" Arc agreed

***In the ruins***

"Quick question; why is there light in here?" we were some way away from the entrance, yet there was still a considerable amount of light

"Shine rock" Arc answered. I left it at that

"This place is kinda creepy" Floret trembled

Murphy landed on her head "ah come on Floret, I think this place has a real cheerful atmosphere"…well at least he's trying

"Oh Murphy, you're so sweet" she pulled the little guy into a big hug

"Lucky ******" Arc grumbled

Sensing the tension in the room(?) I decided to change the topic "so…what exactly are we looking for?"

"Something we can take back that looks valuable" Arc replied

By this time Murphy was flying around randomly, at the time he was ahead "wow. Guy come check this out!" normally we would have ignored him, but we were in ancient ruins so cool stuff was a given

We ran to where he was "what'd you find little buddy?" and then I saw it; an entire city. We were on a cliff looking at the remains of a city that look like a modern day one, it actually reminded me of Lillycove.

"Murphy do good?"

I nodded my head "Murphy do real good"

"Yay" Murphy cheered

"This-this is incredible" he reached into his quills and pulled out a camera (the heck) "ok, group photo time"

"You have a camera in your quills?" I asked confused

He shrugged "doesn't everybody?"

"Not everyone has quills"

"Oh. Anyway, picture time" he pulled a camera stand out too and set it up and got behind it "ok Bane get a little closer to Aura. No Murphy hold still"

"I got him" Floret grabbed the little bug in a hug

"I guess that works" he grumbled "ok, I set the timer" he ran over to us

"What is that thing Bane?" Aura asked

"You'll see, just don't blink and watch out for the flash"

"Ok ready" Arc said as he got into place "everyone say 'cheese'"

"Cheese" we all said. The camera flashed, and before anyone could do anything else the ground collapsed and well fell through the new hole

***A bit later***

When I woke up everyone else was already awake "is everybody ok?"

"We're fine big brother" Floret replied

"Yeah, but where are we?" Aura asked

Arc surveyed the area around us "my guess would be that we've reached the deepest part of the ruins"

"Well it's about time" Aura complained

"Yeah, I can't wait to get out of here, this place is spooky" Floret trembled

Arc looked at them "what's the big deal? Just because we're in the last know remains of a long dead civilization that was more advance then ours yet still managed to get wiped out, and that the cause of the mass killing travesty is most likely still down here, the possibilities of what it is ranging from a extremely painful and deadly disease that possess no known cure, an evil demon that feeds off the living flesh of its victims, or an uncontrollable machine that could wipe out all life as we know it, doesn't mean that there's anything scary down here"…wow…he's almost worse than Murphy

By now poor Floret was shaking like a leaf "I'm scared big brother" she latched onto me for comfort

I glared at the Sandslash "way to go Arc"

He looked at me confused "what did I do?"

Aura was still pretty irritated "would you both just shut up!?"

I sighed and looked over to Murphy; he was squinting at something "what are you looking at?"

"The rocks" was his reply. And when I looked, sure enough there was an odd pile of rocks

"What the?" I walked over to them "hey guys, check this out"

"What? Did you find something?" Arc asked excited

"I think so" I replied "there's this weird rock pile

"Arc turned around to look at the pile in question, his eyes widened "no Bane get away from that!" but he was too late, the pile started shaking and the rocks started to pile up on one another. It wasn't long until I was staring face to face with Regirock

Whoop, epic spelunking adventure, I'm goanna try to get the next chapter up soon but no promises, also I fixed my poll, you can start voting now. Read and review but remember; if you can't say anything nice don't say anything at all


	10. The first of many

Well it's time to pick up where we left off; the big fight against Regirock (aka one of the biggest fight scenes in this fic). Thank you Waveripple of Team Sunrise and thunder-light1 for reviewing

**Chapter 10 the first of many**

We all stared at the mighty golem, too stunned to do anything else "what do we do now?" I asked apprehensive

Arc was the first to reply "don't move. Don't even breathe. Don't do anything, except pray" looking back we did know Arceus so that might actually have worked

"So then how do we get out of here?" Aura asked never looking away from the rock giant

"Don't worry; I have a plan" Arc replied

"Already? You sure you've thought it through?" Floret asked

"I've been in a situation like this before" he said with confidence

I was tempted to turn my head to stare at him "you've been in a stare down with a golem before?"

"No it was a Kunai slinging bolder. But other than that it's the same"…the heck? "Anyone here know any show tunes?"

Well that was an odd question "Um…I do"

That seemed to relax him "ok good, this'll work. Ok Bane, first I need you to-" but as per usual Murphy just had to do something mind numbingly stupid

He flew up to Regirock and said "hi there, my name is Murphy, what's yours?

"Murphy!" I hissed "get away"

"It's ok Bane, he's not goanna hurt us" he chirped from on top of the rocky behemoth

I was stunned "huh, well what do you know" I walked forward to Regirock, only to get sucker punched

"Bane!" Aura yelled running to my side, something that drew the golem's attention. The weird little bumps on its face started lighting up in some random order, accompanied by some strange beeping sounds

"Oh this is just great" Arc complained rolling his eyes

"Big brother!" Floret screamed

"Look out!" I yelled. Regirock was using some kind of attack, judging by the rocks floating in the air I would have to guess it was AncientPower.

He let loose his attack, and I didn't have time to stop it. The rocks barreled right at me, then a gust of wind almost strong enough to lift me blew them away. We looked towards the source to find none other the Murphy "hey, that was not very nice" even though he was the dumbest person I ever met, he was far from the weakest. Heck before he evolved he was a powerhouse by Burmy standers "now say you're sorry" his reply came in the form of a rock falling on top of him

"Murphy!!!" Floret cried in distress

I just scoffed "come on; it's just Murphy" I walked over to the rock and picked it up reveling a squashed, but otherwise unharmed, Murphy

"I have a lovely bunch of apples, there they are all a standing in a row" I could have sworn I saw Regirock twitch at that

"Oh thank Eon" Floret sighed in relief

"So…now what?" Arc asked

Aura slapped her face "duh, we fight"

"What!? We can't fight one of the golems!" Arc exclaimed

"Oh I'm sorry, I forgot about your brilliant plan" she replied, her voice dripping with sarcasm

"I did have one, but now it's too late!" he yelled back

Floret landed in-between them after dodging an attack "could you two please argue later?"

"Fine" Aura replied reluctantly before jumping into the fray with Arc following suite.

"Did you try talking to it?" asked Arc as he let loose a Swift attack

"Didn't work" I replied deflecting some rocks with Bone Rush

"YOU BIG MEANY!!!" Murphy yelled in pure rage as he bombarded Regirock with Bug Buzz, which I followed up with Metal Sound

"Whoop! New combo for the win!" Arc cheered. He was right to some degree; the twin attack seemed to stun Regirock. Floret took this opening as a chance to encase it in ice with Ice Punch. When the dust settled (what? We were screaming pretty loud) we looked to see the mighty Regirock trapped in ice

"It's over" Aura said in a hushed tone. We turned around to leave when we heard an extremely loud "crack!" We all flinched at the sound

"Oh great" Arc whimpered. We turned around again to see the ice full of cracks "we're goanna die" "Smash!" the ice shattered flinging shards every which way. Not sparing any time Regirock prepared another attack, this time he started glowing with energy "not good!"

"What?" Aura asked slightly panicking

"That's SuperPower" he replied

"I'll say it is" I commented

"No, I mean the move!" he yelled

"And that's bad?" Floret asked worried

"Oh yeah it's bad!" he started shaking

Before we had time to say anything else, Regirock unleashed its attack; an orb of raw energy as big as its maker shot straight at us. Aura and I used ExtremeSpeed to get out of the way, Floret used Bounce, Arc used Dig, and Murphy wasn't in the way of the attack so he was fine right where he was. Even though it missed us the attack still devastated us; when we looked at where it hit we saw the exit had caved in "not good" I gulped

Arc finished his attack hitting Regirock "what happened?"

"Our way out just got blocked" Floret answered

"What!?" Arc panicked (A/N in case you're wondering; Arc can't dig his way out because the rocks would make his tunnel cave in)

"I guess we got to do this the old fashion way" Aura cracked her knuckles

"Can't we do it the new fashion way? That way tends to leave less permanent marks on the body" Arc asked meekly

Aura glared at him "What are you; a man or a mouse?"

"Both!" was his reply "but what does that have to do with this!?"

Aura groaned "never mind" she rushed the rock golem and hit it with Dragon Pulse, but Regirock blocked it by holding its arms over its body in an 'x' shape; Iron Defense. "****!" she yelled

"Didn't know it could do that" I remarked

"Ok, I know I already said this, but; not good!" Arc screamed

"How do we beat this thing if it can block all our attacks!?" Floret panicked

"Just keep hitting it!" Arc yelled "that always seems to work for me"

As simple minded as it was, Arc's plan was our best bet…yes I know what you're thinking, and you're right; we were screwed. "I'm open to ideas people" I called out "even Murphy's"

Aura stared at me "come on Bane, we're not that desperate" I glared at her for a few seconds "ok, ok. We _are_ that desperate"

Before anyone else could say anything, Regirock fired another AncientPower "****! I didn't want to have to use this" I unleashed Vacuum Wave. The incoming rocks all turned to dust

It's said that Arc's eye's grew three sizes that day "holy…holy…holy…something" how articulate "you know Vacuum Wave!?" his response was the very reason why I had made a habit of not using that move; when Pokémon look for a mate one thing guaranteed to boost your chances of scoring was knowing an egg move, Vacuum Wave was one of the strongest out there and I already had enough girl trouble. I'll leave you to fill in the blanks

"Wow, that was amazing big brother" Floret said in awe. She already knew I could use Vacuum Wave

Then Arc had a brainstorm "I got it! Bane, get over here" I did just that. He started digging around in his quills "ah, here it is" he pulled out a TM

"What's that thing?" Aura asked cocking her head

"A TM" I answered "the real question is why do you are you carrying one?"

"Ah, know a bit about humans do you Bane?" Arc replied slyly

"Well my big brother is a reborn" Floret said as she was bouncing around Regirock dodging its attacks while shooting off an Ice Punch now and then…what, did you really think Regirock was just standing there waiting for us to finish talking?

"He's a what!?" Arc yelled

I sighed, I really didn't need a repeat of the 'real vs. reborn' tournament from when I was on the road "is that a problem?"

He seemed to have calmed down a bit "no, it's just you might want to tell me these kind of things before we fight a legendary"

His response was a little surprising "you mean you don't mind?"

He shook his head "no, it's actually pretty convenient; I don't have to waste time explain what I'm about to do"

"Nope, I already have a good idea." He walked over to me and put the TM to my head, pushed a button on it, and it started spinning

This however did not go unnoticed by Regirock. It stopped trying to hit Floret, the fight was pretty one sided after all, and turned its attention to me and Arc "oh crap" Arc squeaked

Aura, Floret, and Murphy got in-between us and Regirock "Arc, just finish whatever you and Bane are doing, we'll stall it" Aura commanded

"We got your back Bane" Murphy tried to say heroically, instead it just sounded cute

"Yeah, what they said" Floret said. And with that they jumped into action; Murphy started it off with a Gust attack, while it failed to do any damage it picked up so muck debris that it blocked Regirock's line of sight, Floret followed up with a Dizzy Punch, which like the last attack failed to do any real damage, but it did stun the Golem

"My turn" Aura said simply. She dashed at Regirock and hit it with Force Palm. Regirock was completely immobilized

"Yay, we did it" Murphy cheered. But it was premature, what everyone failed to notice was the energy slowly building around Regirock

"G-guys look out!" but I was too late; Regirock fired off SuperPower right at the three of them, it was a direct hit "No!!!" all three of them hit the wall, Floret was out cold. "Floret" a tear found its way into my eye

"S-s-s-she's o-o-o-o-o-o-ok Bane" Aura struggled to say. Well that was a relief

"And done" Arc said. The TM was broken; it had done its job

I got to my feet, a new source of determination driving me "let's end this"

Regirock, now recovered from using SuperPower, readied an AncientPower, a few seconds later it fired. I held my paw out, energy collected in it, a few seconds later I fired. The ball of power dashed at the incoming rocks and vaporized them; it even made it to Regirock itself and managed to push it back a bit "so the TM was Flash Cannon" Arc said in awe

I turned to him "you mean you didn't know what it was!?"

"Hey, it worked didn't it?" in his defense; if I wasn't capable of learning the move in the TM it wouldn't have even turned on

"I guess" I mumbled. Then I heard a cracking sound "what the?"

"Bane look out!" Arc dove at me and pushed me away. Not a second later a pile of rocks fell on him, right where I used to be standing

"Arc!" I cried out

"I'm ok" he replied "just stuck. You can get me out after you beat that guy. Don't worry; I'm used to the darkness and being surrounded on all sides, I am a Ground type after all"

"Don't worry, I'll get you out" I reassured, then I saw something familial in the pile of rocks; it was an AncientPower rock, the one I missed. I cursed myself before turning to my opponent

It fired AncientPower again and like before I countered with Flash Cannon, but unlike my opponent I was running out of strength fast "Bane" Aura called out weakly

"Hang on guys. I'll, I'll think of something" I forced myself to my feet to try to attack, but I was knocked back by a rock that I was to slow to stop. "F-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f" I couldn't even finish one word.

It was all over Arc was stuck in-between some rocks, Floret was out cold, and Aura was struggling to stay awake and Murphy was…well…Murphy. I stared at Regirock with my back to the wall. Regirock started to glow with energy; SuperPower. Well if I had to go I would want it to be with a bang. I closed my eyes and waited for the end, and then I heard a "Bonk!" Accompanied by a "Meany" I opened my eyes to see Regirock completely still, rolling by his feet was a…a…a, coconut?

"Murphy?" I looked at my small friend who was staring at the rock giant. Then I looked back at Regirock, I knew what was goanna happen next; it would use that attack on Murphy, and there was nothing I could do to stop it. And then I heard it "Crack" there was a crack in Regirock's head…and it was growing. It kept spreading and spreading until it covered the rock golem, and the "poof" Regirock turned to dust. We were all in shock; Murphy, of all people, killed Regirock with a coconut.

"What's going on here!?" a new voice yelled. This was bad; we had just killed Regirock, the gods were likely to do the same to us. The pile of rocks that had blocked our way out shattered, I looked at the person in the hallway and my jaw dropped, it was the last person I expected to see

OMG Murphy killed a god…with a coconut, typical. Anyway; who was that mysteries voice, and what will they do when they see the pile of dust that used to be Regirock? Read and review but remember; if you can't say anything nice don't say anything at all


	11. Exposition for the win

Time for the next chapter everybody; sorry it took so long to get this out, but 4th quarter was brutal. I'm a bit surprised one guessed who the voice was. Thank you Waveripple of Team Sunrise and thunder-light1 for reviewing

**Chapter 11 Exposition for the win**

I was panicking; we (Murphy) had just killed a god, and now someone was here. At least that's what I was thinking before I saw who cleared the rocks away from the entrance "Regirock!"

The previously thought to be dead golem stared me straight in the eyes "…yeah…"

"B-but you died!" I was worried I was going crazy

His head tilted a bit "I did?" he turned around and spotted the pile of dust "ohhhh. _That's_ what you meant" oddly enough he didn't sound mad at all

"You sound pretty ok with this"

"I'm not 'ok' with it, but it's not that big a deal" he shrugged

I tilted my head "really?"

Regirock started to laugh "you have no idea how many of those I go through in a week"

My eyes widened at the sudden realization "you mean it's a robot?"

Regirock thought about for a second "…something like that" then he reached behind him and pulled out an oddly shaped rock from what I can only assume was hammer space "here you go" he said tossing it to me

"Um…what's this for?" I asked examining it

Regirock looked embarrassed (at least I think so) "woops, sorry I thought you were Bane"

"…I am…" I was a bit worried what my response would trigger

He stared at me "and you don't know what it's for?"

Now I was really nervous "no"

The giant slammed his fist into a wall "**** it Arceus!"

I turned my head "don't you mean; 'Arceus **** it'?

He turned back to me "no. I mean '**** it Arceus'. I can't believe he forgot to tell you about this" he then started mumbling something I couldn't hear followed by a sigh "come, walk with me"

"But what about my friends?" I protested

Regirock paused for a second "oh yeah. I forgot about them. Just let them rest here"

Fully aware I was tempting fate I asked "are you sure they'll be ok?"

The golem scoffed "like there's anything down here that can hurt them"

I raised an eyebrow "except robot golems?"

"…Well there is that. By the way; how did you smash it into dust?"

I was hoping this question wouldn't come up; the answer is just too weird "um…Murphy threw a coconut at it"

Regirock froze "a coconut?"

"Yes…"

His head was down and he was shaking it "oh boy"

"But it's the truth!" I protested

He held up one of his arms to stop me "I didn't say you were lying"

"…You believe me?"

"Yeah…just don't ask why ok?" he said regaining a noble(ish) pose

"Anyway; what is this thing?" I asked holding the strange rock

He walked towards a wall and motioned for me to do the same "this way" I walked to him and when I got there he pushed a rock on the wall making a door appear in front of us

"Wow"

"I know. My place is pimping" he walked through the door and I followed suit. The door led to a VERY long hallway, I couldn't even see the end, but Regirock just kept on walking, as did I

"Ok, one more time; what the **** is this thing!" I demanded all but shoving it in his face

"Geez man, personal space" he brushed me off. Only when I returned my hands to my side did he reply "it's called the Rock Part. And DON'T complain about how the name is unoriginal, I already get enough of that crap"

I held it in front of my face and stared at it "so what does it do? Is it a weapon?"

Regirock made a raspberry like sound…which is odd since he doesn't have a mouth "yeah right, that things about as dangerous as a-"

"-coconut" I joked

"As a non-sealed coconut" he corrected

My eyes widened "what!"

"Nothing" he quickly corrected not seconds after I finished talking

I sighed "ok, so what does the Rock Part do?"

"Registeel will fill you in on the details"

"Is he here?"

The dots on the right side of his head glowed a bit brighter than the ones on his left side, in what I can only assume was a 'Regi eyebrow raise' "…no…why would he be here?"

"So I have to find Registeel just to tell me what this thing does!" I fumed

The rock giant just sighed "listen; the Rock Part is useless without the Ice and Steel parts, and since Registeel's is probably going to be the last one you get I figure you might as well hear it from him"

"Oh" then I remembered the rest of the riddle "I'll need to head to Dewford and Fortree right? How am I supposed to get there?"

"Well at least Arceus told you something. Head to Slateport, you'll find what you need there"

"Is that all?"

"Pretty much, yeah"

I looked ahead and noticed that there was a door ahead; we were almost too wherever we were going. We stepped though the door and-"we were just here!" I yelled

"Hi Bane" Murphy beamed. The others were awake as well and greeted me too

I glared at Regirock "what was the whole point of that?"

"What else were we supposed to do; just stand here?" he glared back, at least I think he did; the dots on his head were really bright. Seeing as I didn't have a response I just let it go "well it's about time you guys got on your way, you have a big adventure ahead of you"

Arc was the first to move "NO!" he ran over to Regirock and everyone stared at him "please, I can't leave without knowing; you have to tell me, please, please-"

Regirock's head rose very slowly "is he always like this?"

"We just met him" Aura replied

"Ah" then he turned back to Arc "I can't tell you what you want to know if I don't even know what it is you what to know. ****, try saying that 5 times fast

I heard Murphy take a deep breath, followed by; "Ican''

Ican''

Ican''

Ican''

Ican''"

Arc and Regirock were dumbfounded "holy ****, I didn't mean that literally"

Murphy landed on my head and asked "Murphy do good?"

I chuckled and replied "Murphy do good" while patting him on his tiny head

"Yay"

Regirock turned back to Arc "ok, back to the hyperventilating rat; what is it that you wanted to ask?"

Arc took a few second to breathe before asking his question "how did the Pokeztec civilization collapse?"

Regirock sighed "the economy went belly up"

Now I know none of us were expecting this "really!"

The golem continued in a weepy like voice "I told them to watch out for the stock markets" his fist (?) started shaking in anger "those **** stock markets"

"…Ok" Aura sweet dropped

"Anyway; how are we supposed to get back up to the entrance, we fell down a hole and I didn't see any way up"

Regirock flinched at that "oh yeah, I saw that hole. I told Arceus he wasn't cut out to be a carpenter" he sighed

"What?" Floret asked

Regirock waved his hand "nothing" and the he said almost crying "who uses Paper Mache to fix a rock floor?" cue massive sweatdrop. Regirock put himself back together (pun intended) and said "well the elevator is still broken, so I guess you'll have to take the shortcut" he walked over to a wall, not the same one as before, to two rocks sticking out of the wall and pushed one. Suddenly a disco ball came out of the ceiling with strobe lights following, next the floor converted into one of those checkerboard disco things "crap, wrong rock" next a familiar song started to play

I sighed "here we go again" I grabbed a conveniently place microphone and started to do something I haven't done in awhile; sing

_Aw, aw baby, yeah  
Ooh yea, huh, listen to this_

Arc stared at me, and then turned to Aura "what's going on?"

She sighed "it's this impulse Bane has"

"Convulsive singing?"

"Yep"

Next he turned to Regirock "shouldn't you stop him?"

But Regirock just shook his head "screw it; dance party people!"

_Spy on me, baby, use satellite  
Infrared to see me move through the night  
Aim gonna fire shoot me right  
I'm gonna like the way you fight  
And I love the way you fight_

Now you found the secret code  
I use to wash away my lonely blues well  
So I can't deny or lie 'cause you're the only one  
Who can make me fly

For the next verse I heard a new voice singing; it was deep and suave, I turned to see who it was; Murphy, how am I not surprised

_Sex bomb, sex bomb, you're a sex bomb uh, huh  
You can give it to me when I need to come along, give it to me  
Sex bomb, sex bomb, you're my sex bomb  
And baby, you can turn me on, baby, you can turn me on  
You know what you're doing to me, don't you?  
Ha ha, I know you do_

He flew over to me and sat on my shoulder, now close enough to sing into the microphone; it was officially a duet

_No, don't get me wrong, ain't gonna do you no harm, no  
This bombs made for lovin' and you can shoot it far  
I'm your main target, come and help me ignite ow  
Love struck holding you tight hold me tight darlin'_

Make me explode although you know  
The route to go to sex me slow, slow, baby  
And yes, I must react to claims of those  
Who say that you are not all that huh, huh, huh

Sex bomb, sex bomb, you're a sex bomb  
You can give it to me when I need to come along  
Sex bomb, sex bomb, you're my sex bomb  
And baby, you can turn me on turn me on, darlin'

Sex bomb, sex bomb, you're my sex bomb, sex bomb  
You can give it to me when I need to come along  
Sex bomb, sex bomb, you're my sex bomb  
And baby, you can turn me on

I let Murphy take it away, turning the next verse into his solo

_You can give me more and more counting up the score, yeah  
You can turn me upside down, inside out  
You can make me feel the real deal, uh, uh  
I can give it to you any time because you're mine  
Ouch, sex bomb, aw baby_

Sex bomb, sex bomb, you're my sex bomb  
And you can give it to me  
When I need to be turned on, no, no

Sex bomb, sex bomb, you're my sex bomb  
And baby, you can turn me on, turn me on  
And baby, you can turn me on, turn me on  
Baby, you can turn me on, turn me on

Ooh baby, you can turn me on, turn me on  
Baby, you can turn me on, oh  
Baby, you can turn me on, oh  
Baby, you can turn me on  
Well baby, you can turn me on

Our audience cheered, even Regirock seemed impressed. "That was fun" Murphy chirped. I took a long hard look at my small friend; he was the first person to actually sing with me rather than just laugh

"One sec" Regirock ran to the 4th wall (ha, pun) and pushed a rock, a door appeared and he went in. seconds later we saw a whole bunch of stuff flying out with the occasional 'nope, not it, nada,' at last he heard "finally!" Regirock ran out with a camcorder "ok, one more time. I got to record this"

I looked at my singing partner "well buddy; what do you say?"

"Let's bring the house down, but not literally because that would be bad"

"Ha, good old Murphy"

Exposition plus a duet by everyone favorite Fighting/Steel and Bug/Flying team, can you say epic -_^. Next chapter the team gets back on the road and hilarity ensues (you know you love it). Read and review but remember; if you can't say anything nice don't say anything at all


	12. the road less traveled

Sorry it took so long to get this chapter up, believe it or not this one was pretty hard to write, not sure why. Thank you Ms. Trickster and Waveripple of Team Sunrise for reviewing. Just a heads up; the chapter name is kind of a misnomer, the gang ended up staying in the desert longer then I intended (i.e. the whole chapter), but I'm too lazy to change the name, however I'm ok with witting this explanation which takes more work then changing a chapter title, life's weird like that

**Chapter 12 the road less traveled**

It turns out that Regirock's 'shortcut' was a giant spring that shot us straight through the roof, where after a few seconds we somehow, and without help from any outside force, moved forward about 6 feet before falling down into the sand. Believe it or not this doesn't even come close to counting as strange to me. "Remind me to ask Regirock where he got a spring that violates the laws of physics when we next see him" I said brushing the sand off me

"Sorry to burst your bubble Bane; but I don't think the gods are very keen on the idea of sharing the great secrets of the universe" Arc, who was completely unfazed by the fall, replied

"He's got a point Bane. By the way; how are you holding up Arc?" Aura asked, it was a reasonable question, Arc wasn't a seasoned adventurer like the rest of us…let's just say that interesting stuff happens when you hang out with Murphy

"Pretty good, why?"

Floret took this one "well we just fell down quite a long way into the sand"

He scoffed "big deal; I spend a good chunk of my life in the dirt" we all stared at him "what? I AM a Ground type, that's Kinda our thing"

"Good point" I replied

"But there's one thing I don't get; why didn't you fly Murphy?"

By this time Murphy was on his favorite roost; my head "I like falling; it reminds me how I met Bane"

Arc looked at me with a 'please tell me he's not serious' look, one I know all too well thanks to Murphy "sorry Arc, he's right"

"Oh boy"

"Well what now?" Floret asked

"Regirock said we need to head to Slateport city" I replied

"And you know where that is?" Aura checked

"Don't worry, I do"

"Good" Aura sighed "I don't want to get lost again"

"We should probably stop by Arc's place first" Floret suggested

"Good idea, I bet his dad is worried" I said taking point

"Sorry about that" Arc apologized "I know it's pretty out of the way"

Aura shrugged "well we can just run"

"But still-" Arc was cut off when I grabbed him and took off with ExtremeSpeed, Aura doing the same thing with Floret, and Murphy holding on tight to my head. We got to the tent in a matter of seconds. I let go of Arc and he started wobbling around "oh…that's what you meant" and then he fell down

I sighed "Murphy"

"I'm on it" he got off my head, went over to Arc and helped his to his feet (told you he was strong), then he slapped him

"OWWWWWWW!" he cried out. "Thanks Murphy, I needed that"

"Anytime" he said before returning to my head. I chose to ignore the subtext of what he said

"Arc? Is that you?" Arc's dad came out of the tent "oh thank Arceus"

"Hey dad" Arc raised his paw to great his dad

"I'm glad to see you're alright" he let out a breath of relief "so…how'd it go?"

It was like those words just set something off in Arc "it was amazing! First we found the cave, then picture, then hole in the ground, pile of rocks, IT WAS REGIROCK, big fight, Murphy was like 'swoosh', and Floret was like 'bounce, bounce, punch', and Aura was like 'I got your back', and Bane was like 'unleash the power of Vacuum Wave', but then Regirock was like 'beep, boop, beep', and he used SuperPower, then Flash Cannon against AncientPower, then I was like 'look out Bane', then I pushed him out of the way, then 'smash' rocks all over me, then Murphy…and he…Regirock…COCONUT!" right after that he fainted, most likely he used up too much air. He said this in half the time I did

"….ok…." I was more or less at a loss for words

"Is he always like this?" Aura asked Arc's dad

He sighed "it's his bad habit; he gets overly excited about stuff like this"

Meanwhile Murphy was still trying to piece together what had just happened "so…bad habits make you faint sometimes?"

Aura raised an eyebrow "sometimes" a very big mistake; when Murphy gets something wrong, and it's not really important you just let it be

"Well you didn't always faint when you chased Bane" had anyone other than Murphy said that, Aura would have most likely beaten them into a mushy paste (she came very close to accomplishing that once), but no one can stay mad a Murphy for long; he's like the little brother of the group

"What'd he do? Cop a feel?" Arc, whom none of us had noticed was awake now, asked

Aura turned red in the face and slapped him…**hard** "PERVERT!"

Arc's dad (whose name I can't remember) sighed "he had that coming"

"But dad" Arc protested

"But nothing! How many times have I told you to think before you talk?" he waited for a response "well!"

"I don't know" Arc replied meekly

"Exactly" he sighed "sometimes I wonder if a human like me is capable of raising a Pokémon"

"Oh come on dad, it's not your fault"

"I can't even teach you to fight like your birth father should be able to"

"But dad"

"Arcs right" everyone turned to me "you're at least trying to raise him. You took him in before he was even born, and gave him something to come into this world to. At least you love him" a tear worked arc's its way into my eye

Arc's dad stroked his chin "you sound like you're talking from experience"

"Sort of" I vaguely replied

"…By the way; what are you doing all the way out here?" Arc's dad asked

Arc sprang to life once more "you're never goanna believe this dad; they're on a quest given to them by the gods, I even heard Regirock mention that they met Arceus. It's just like something out of legends. Isn't it amazing dad? Isn't it, isn't it-" I cut him off there with a quick jab to his gut, forcing him to take a breath "t-thanks Bane"

"No problem"

A small smile appeared on Arc's dad's…ok, screw this; calling him 'Arc's dad' all the time is starting to get annoying, I'll just call him Bob to save time from now on. Where was I? Oh yeah; a small smile appeared on Bob's (much better face) "a quest from the gods, you don't say"

"Yeah, but so far we don't even have a clue what we're doing, it's really-" I paused there "wait; you BELIEVE us?"

"In my line of work you get used to this kind of stuff" he replied

"YOUR line of work! But you're an archeologist! What, do you have a part time job in the Men in Black or something!"

"We've seen A LOT of interesting things" Arc replied

I sighed "you know what, never mind"

Aura turned to Bob (see how much easier this is) "so…you were saying?"

Floret cocked her head "he was saying something…wait that came out wrong"

Bob cleared his throat to get our attention "anyway, as I was saying-"

"That's 3, you'reeee out!" Murphy cheered

Bob and Arc gave me a questioning glance; it would seem that they had finally figured out that I was more or less Murphy's interpreter "THAT is the end result of teaching Murphy team sports"

Aura rubbed her temple "Could we just get to the point!"

Bob sighed "long story short; I'd like you to take Arc with you"

Arc look terrified "YOU'RE KICKING ME OUT!" he then started to run around in circles screaming like a mad man

Bob quickly corrected himself "no, no. that's not what I meant at all. I just thought that you should get some interaction with some other Pokémon is all"

Arc stopped right after that last word "you mean you're not disowning me?"

"Of course not son, I love you. But spending your whole life with only me can't be good for your social development; you need to spend some time with Pokémon your own age. When it's all over you can come home, you know where the house is after all"

"S-so you still love me" Arc sniffed

"You're my son, how could I not" I rolled my eyes at that, Aura saw me and jabbed my rib with her elbow

"Ow" I complained quietly

"Behave yourself Bane" Aura nagged

"Yes MOM" that only got me another jab in the rib

"Watch it mister"

I turned back to Bob and Arc to see them coming out of a hug "So; what do you say?" Bob asked

"Let me consult my team first" I signaled the others into a huddle

Aura spoke first "ok, first things first; YOUR team?" she glared at me

"Well it is my quest" I retorted

"Bane…I swear, one of these days"

"What; you'll kiss me" I replied trying to zing her using Murphy's previous comment

Then…well she Kinda gave me a peck on the cheek, and that sort of shut me up "you mean like that" she replied slyly

"I hate you so much right now Aura" I grumbled

"Love you too Bane muffin" she giggled, oh how I cringed

Floret, who was recovering from a giggling fit, spoke up "anyway; what do you guys think about Arc?"

Aura had a grimace on her face "he wasn't too impressive in the fight with Regirock-"

"RoboRock" Murphy corrected, we all stared at him (except for me, it was kind of hard seeing as how his huddle position was on top of my head) "well it wasn't the real Regirock, and he did say it was a robot"

"I say we go with it; that's pretty clever coming from Murphy" I chuckled

Aura shrugged "ok, RoboRock it is"

"Back to Arc" Floret interjected

I sighed "I have to agree with Aura, guess he is too weak to go with us"

"Not necessarily" cue smart Murphy "while he didn't show an impressive array of physical powers, I don't think that's any reason to pass premature judgment on him, truth be told _none_ of, save Bane, show anything really note worthy in the previous fight, he did however have quick enough reflexes to push Bane out of the way of the falling rocks. Consider this; he is the only Pokémon that travels with Bob, that means that he has to protect him all by himself, that fact alone says good things about his strength. I will admit that he did panic at certain intervals in the fight, but it didn't interrupt or hider him in any way as far as I can see. And while he might not have had any formal training, I have a hard time believing we should count that against him, after all; Bane received no formal training either, and look how well he turned out"

"…Wow, just…wow" I chuckled

"Well I'm convinced" Aura shrugged

"Me too" Floret said

"Murphy do good?"

I gave an amused snort "Murphy do good"

"Yay"

"So we all agree?" I double checked

"Yep"

"Of course"

"Then it's settled" we started to get out of the huddle, when Murphy screeched

"Wait!"

"Ow, Murphy you're right in-between my ears" I moaned

"Sorry Bane, but we can't leave without doing the thing" he pouted

"The what?" Aura asked

I sighed "oh right" one of the many times I regretted teaching Murphy team sports "break on the count of 3" Aura and Floret both nodded their heads, now understanding what Murphy meant, Murphy on the other hand was shaking with excitement

"1…2…3 Break!" we all called out

"Happy now Murphy?" I asked my bug friend

"Murphy happy, thank you Bane" he darted to my snout and started hugging it

"So?" Bob asked eagerly

I smiled "Welcome to the team Arc"

***Arc the Sandslash has joined the party***

"AHHH! The voices!"

Well that's chapter 12, hope you liked it. Nothing _to _big here (unless you count Arc joining the party, but you all knew that would happen right?) but I still feel like it's a nice little chapter, there's some laughs. Read and review but remember; if you can't say anything nice don't say anything at all


	13. City escape

Well it's time for chapter 13 (and to think I started this on a Friday, I can feel the bad luck already). Thank you pyco fox, Waveripple of Team Sunrise, and thunder-light1 for reviewing

**Chapter 13 City Escape**

I gave a deep sigh "well, we might as well get this over with"

Arc raised an eyebrow "um Bane…that's New Mauville, what are we getting over with?" the he scratched his head "…that didn't sound quite right"

Aura was fuming "this…this…hell hole!"

Arc shook his head "Listen guys; just because you have a problem with gambling-"

"It's not that!" Aura shrieked

"Is it the booze?" he tried

"No!" Aura yelled back

Arc face palmed "well then what is it!"

"The people!"

Arc's eye widened "I thought you guys weren't raciest"

Aura pulled her dreadlock in frustration, which made me wince; I knew how painful it was for a Lucario to have their dreadlocks pulled, they're very sensitive "not humans in general! Just the people from this city!"

"Why?" *sigh* why did you have to push her Arc?

"Because they're crazy!"

Arc rolled his eyes "yeah, and we're a shining beacon of sanity"

"Shiny!" Murphy chimed

"You weren't here the last time we were here" Aura grumbled

Arc made a snapping sound with one of his claws "ohhhh, I get it" I prepared myself for whatever stupid thing he was about to say "it's that time of the year right?" I just groaned

Aura had a blush on her face that could have been mistaken for a rash. She was about to rip the poor guy a new one, when Murphy said "not yet" we all turned to look at him

"Murphy, do you even know what 'that time of year is?" I asked regretting it a second later

"Duh; it's a girl's grumpy time" he said like it was the most obvious thing in the world (his world at least)

Arc thought to himself for a minute "'grumpy time', he's not too far off" Aura pounded him into the ground

I sighed "if we're done beating people senseless-" Aura huffed and crossed her arms "-we should come up with a plan to get through this town"

"Couldn't Arc dig a tunnel underneath the town for us to go through?" Floret suggested

"I wouldn't have any idea where I was going; we could even end up in the gym" he replied

"Ok, no digging" I muttered to myself

"Should we wait till night?" Floret asked

Arc shook his head "that would take to long"

"Mad dash?" Aura tried

"Too many buildings, plus there might be faster Pokémon in there" I replied

"What else can we do? There're so many people in there" Aura complained

I rolled my eyes "maybe we should just level the whole place"

Aura looked at me with pleading eyes "could we?"

I was taken aback "Aura!"

"I'm just kidding Bane" she giggled

Arc started pacing "maybe we could-" but he was cut off by a familiar sound

"Hide!" I yelled. We all dove into some nearby bushes. I peeked my head out just a bit to see a truck coming to a stop near us

"Do you think they saw us?" Floret asked nervous

"If they want a fight then let's give them one" Aura punched an open palm

"Quiet. I'm trying to listen" I was able to make out a bit of what the occupants were saying

"Lost…directions…Goldenrod City" after that I stop paying attention

"Here's the plan; we sneak onto the truck, and hide their till we're through the city" I said

"Way to go big bro" Floret cheered

"But we have to be quiet" I reminded them

Aura rolled her eyes "duh"

"This is _way_ too convenient" Arc grumbled

We ran to the back of the truck to sneak on. I got to the door and pulled it up; it wouldn't move "Crap, can anyone here pick a lock?"

Arc walked up "here, let me" he pulled one of his quills out and griped it with a claw (how he did that I'll never know), he put the quill in the lock and moved it around a bit "bingo" the door started to fly up, but then I caught it, we couldn't afforded to make too much noise

"In, in" I ushered them in. After they got in I hopped in too, closing the door behind me. So far, so good. It was too dark to see inside, but luckily I had aura sensing, when I took a look around with my second set of eyes I noticed we were in a U-Haul, it was filled with boxes and stuff.

"What now?" Arc asked

"Let's sit down over there behind those boxes" I said pointing to a group of boxes that covered a good chunk of the wall on the side opposite the door

"Where? You and Aura are the only ones who can still see in here Bane, 'over there' isn't too helpful" Arc pointed out

"Oh no!" Floret gasped "We forgot Murphy; I thought it was odd that he hadn't said anything for a while"

I scoffed "no we didn't, he's right over there" I said pointing to my flying friend

Arc grunted in exasperation "again; 'over there' isn't helping at all"

"Let's just sit down already" Aura sighed. So we did, Aura and I led Arc and Floret to the boxes, we got behind them, and we sat down, simple as that.

We sat there for what felt like hours, and the truck hadn't started moving "the hell is wrong with these people?" Arc complained

"This is a really fun adventure" Aura grumbled

Murphy started darting around the…whatever you call the place we were in "oh, oh. Pick me, pick me. Oh please pick me!"

I sighed "Murphy"

"Yes" he pumped his little hand "I'll get out and push"

Arc threw his hands up "Murphy says something stupid again. Huzzah, all is right with the world" I would have wacked him for saying that about my best friend, if it hadn't felt so eerily right

Then Aura stood up "you now; I think Murphy's on to something"

"Oh boy" I was worried not because someone thought Murphy had a good idea, but because it was Aura who said that

"I'll give them a push, right off the edge!"

I face palmed "there is no edge nearby"

She shrugged "I'll improvise"

That took me by surprise "how do you improvise an edge?"

Arc shook his head "even I don't know and I'm the Ground type of this little band heroes"

Aura raised an eyebrow "you really can't make an edge of any kind?"

He shrugged "not without some serious geological remodeling, and I'm not too keen on that idea"

"Why not?" Aura asked

"Other than the fact that these morons would most likely be gone by the time I finish, plus the amount of work I'd have to put in. As a Ground type I know all too well that if you mess with Mother Nature, she's goanna rape your…butt"

I winced "well that was graphic." The next thing we knew the door was open, and by this time we had gotten out of our hiding spots. When I looked out the door I noticed a few thing; 1. There were a lot of humans staring at us, and 2. We were inside of New Mauville "either we weren't paying enough attention or this thing has some killer shocks"

"Bane" Aura whispered to me

"Yeah Aura" I answered back not moving my head

"Have we completely ruled out the level the place plan?"

I sighed "yes we have Aura"

"Crap" was all she had to say

"…Should we run or something?" Arc asked

"Let's wait a few more second" I answered

"Why?"

"To build dramatic tension"

"I hate you Bane" he glared

"Get over it Arc"

"AHH! Pokémon!" some lady screamed

"And now we run" I grabbed Arc and dashed out with ExtremeSpeed and Aura did the same with Floret

"Wait! Where's Murphy!" Floret panicked

"Right there" I pointed to a street lamp a few feet away

"But how…why…when…he…they" Arc stuttered

I rolled my eyes "it's Murphy, don't question it" then I turned to my small friend "Murphy, come on!"

"Ok" and with that he flew over to me and landed on my head

"Now let's get out of here before a trainer shows up" I said

"Not so fast Pokémon" why did I have to open my big mouth. We turned around to see a young boy, I forgot what he looked like but I remember he seemed 13-15 years old "you 5 are mine" he pulled out 5 Pokeballs "Persian, Machoke, Alakazam, Golem, Scyther. Come on out!" he said as he called out his team

The 5 Pokémon materialized in front of us. And that dirty Persian gave my sister a lewd look "my, what a fine Lopunny you have their"

"HEY!" I yelled "get away from my sister!"

His eyes bugged out "y-you're her brother!"

"That's right" I cracked my knuckles (which sounds a lot more epic because of my Steel subtype) "and I'll personally neuter any male that tries to mess with her" one thing that's universally' understood amongst Pokémon is; beware of her big brother. I wasn't surprised when that cowered fled into his Pokeball

"What the?" the human was confused, and rightly so. "Whatever. The rest of you; get them" that was the only order he issued to them the whole fight

"This is for Mike!" the Machoke yelled as he and the others ran out to fight us.

The Golem came at me with a Rollout attack, I simply jumped over him "that was sad" I remarked. Then I felt a sharp pain in my arm; the Scyther. I grabbed the blade in my arm, pulled it out, flipped behind him, and got him in a Full Nelson (I caught a glimpse of Arc and the Golem in a Rollout fight during this)

"Let go of me!" the Scyther demanded

"Yeah, sure. Like that's goanna happen" I rolled my eyes. Just then I felt another sharp pain, this time in my back; the Golem had got me with a Rollout attack. My grip on the Scyther loosened and he got out. Then he hit me with some kind of slashing attack which made me fall over. Now on my back I saw the Golem was still using Rollout…and in the air "what the-AHH!" the prick landed on me. I tried to get him off, but for some reason he seemed heaver then normal

"Murphy look out!" Aura yelled. And then I saw it; a Pokeball headed straight for my best friend

"MURPHY!" I cried helplessly from underneath the Golem. I closed my eyes, and then I heard it; that horrible sound, the ball fell to the ground, *bum* no resistance, he was caught

"Alright, time to test out my new Pokémon" the brat said as he cockily walked up to Murphy's Pokeball. He picked it up, and he threw it. A red light came out, and when it took form…it was…the coconut! "What!"

I was unable to take my eyes off of that bizarre piece of fruit, until I heard the sound of Murphy's wings. I turned towards the source to find him right in the boy's face, he floated there for a few seconds and then *slap!* "Get your own coconut!"

Taking advantage of the confusion I threw the Golem off of me and socked him with a Drain Punch. The Scyther came at me with another Slash attack, but this time I was ready; I brandished my Metal Claws and caught his blades, then I Blaze Kicked him in a place you really don't want to be Blaze Kicked. With the Scyther out of the way I could focus on the Golem. Using aura sensing I could see him coming at me with another Rollout attack, I got Bone Rush ready, he was just about to hit me when *Wham!* I wacked him like a golf ball "Fore!" I chuckled evilly to myself "that felt good"

"NOOOO!" the trainer yelled out as he ran to find his missing Pokémon

I dusted myself off "well, that's that"

"Uh, Bane" Aura tapped my shoulder

"Yeah" I turned to face her

"We have company" she gestured to the crowd of humans around us

"Aw crap" I faced palmed "if I had known we were goanna have an audience I would have put a little more pizzazz into my performance"

Arc sighed "Bane, I think we need to have a long talk about your priorities"

"Maybe we should leave first" Floret suggested

"Let's make a brake for it while they're distracted" Aura said. And we did just that

Well the team is finally done with Va- I mean New Mauville…yeah, that's what I meant. I'm goanna start a little contest; the first person who can guess one of the types of the next Pokémon to join the team (assuming said Pokémon is a Duel Type) gets to ask a spoiler question (the only question you can't ask is what the quest they're on is…that would ruin the whole story) each person gets two guesses. Read and review but remember; if you can't say anything nice don't say anything at all


	14. Who ya goanna call?

I'm a bit surprised no one got one of the types of the next party member (assuming said Pokémon is a duel type), oh well. In this chapter we get a bit of background about Bane and Floret's life in the temples, not only that, but this chapter is the start of this story's very first (drum roll please)…sub-story arc. Thank you pyco fox, Waveripple of Team Sunrise, Alex999139, and thunder-light1 for reviewing

**Chapter 14 who ya goanna call**

"Yes!" Aura cried out as she dropped to her knees "the nightmare is over"

"I think you're being a little too dramatic Aura" I said as I got her to her feet

"Yeah, that's Bane's job" Arc quipped

"Watch it pal" I glared at the small rodent

"'lets build dramatic tension' remember that Bane?" crap, he had me

"Let's just keep moving, it'll be dark soon" I sighed

"Where are we going to stay?" Floret asked

I shook my head "beats me, I've never been here before. Let's find some locals and ask them if there's a place we can stay for the night"

"Good idea" Aura nodded. So we started walking along the path

"Think we should try in the forest over there?" Arc asked

"Yeah, there might be more Pokémon hidden in there, away from the humans" I replied. So we walked to the trees

Then I heard a small voice "…and that's Bane, he's my bestist friend in the whole world"

I turned around to see Murphy alone "Murphy; who were you talking to?"

"My friend" he held up the coconut

"Ok, just checking" I faced the front again

"But he's talking to a fruit" Arc complained "I don't think that's healthy" the three of us just stared at him "*sigh* I'll do it; 'it's Murphy'" he was learning fast.

We didn't have to walk for much longer, not far from the main road there was a small clearing with a lot of Pokémon "This must be the place" Aura said

"Let's just hope they're friendly" I mumbled. Many of the trees here had openings in them, they must have been houses. I looked around, trying to get a feel for the place as well a scanning the aura of the inhabitants. "This place doesn't seem too bad"

"Excuse me" a voice behind me spoke up, I turned around to see a Swalot "are you by any chance travelers?"

"Yeah"

"We were hoping we could find a place to stay for the night" Floret finished

The Swalot's raised an eyebrow "stay here? Are you serious?" several other Pokémon had stopped what they were doing to watch us

"Is that a problem?" I asked apprehensively

He held up his hands in defense "oh dear Arceus no! We are very hospitable…however…" oh boy

"However?"

He started getting nervous "here's the thing; this land is haunted"

"By spirits?" Arc asked

I rolled my eyes "no, by the IRS. Yes by spirits!"

"IRS?" the Swalot asked

I had to think fast "a sub-species of parasite humans"

"Ah" he nodded. Lots of Pokémon had some kind of random knowledge of humans (not not always true though) there would be nothing odd about my claim

"So what's this about spirits?" Floret asked putting us back on topic

"Actually it's just one" a new Australia accented voice said. We turned to the source to find a heavily scarred Hipmontop "I've faced that bugger many a times before, it may seem like he's in more than one place at a time, but there _is_ only one of them"

"Well that simplifies things" I said

"It does?" the Swalot asked

The Hipmontop scoffed "you blokes are bonkers. If I can't take that bugger then what hope do you have?"

I gave a smirk "me and my Bound Sister" I gestured to Floret "are the heirs to the Eon temples" cue collective gasp

"Well I'll be…" the Hipmontop crossed his arms

"Does that mean you can take care of a Spirit?" the Swalot asked hopefully

I shrugged "we've never done an exorcism without our parents, but we know what to do" it was true; both our parents had taught us how to take care of wayward spirits. I remember the first exorcism I saw, my mom took me to some cave somewhere in the forest (I don't remember where it was, to long ago) where she exorcised a Marowack, turns out she was a single mother too and she had died protecting her kids. After awhile I forgot it was supposed to be an exorcism, my mom and her started talking their kids (and embarrassing me) she was a nice lady, just stuck on the mortal plane. Most Spirits here are just stuck and unable to pass over, some cause trouble to draw out a priest or priestess to exorcize so they can be free; only about 2 out of 10 spirits on this plane are malicious. One thing that helped me in exorcisms was my power to sense aura, it helped me empathies with them

"You two think you're up to it?" the Hipmontop asked

"Yep" Floret bubbled

"Well then let's get moving. We need to get there before the sun rises"

"Not really, it does matter what time of day it is, spirits can still show up" I corrected

"Not this bugger" he mumbled

I shrugged "must be a personal preference" and we were off

*a bit later*

"So what's up with you and this Spirit?" Arc asked

"It's my job to keep the people here safe" he answered. Then he chuckled "where are my manors; the name's Ty"

"Bane. This is Aura, Floret and Arc"

"Pleased to meet ya. So…who's this here bloke then?" he asked pointing to Murphy who was busy poking the spike on his head

"Poke, poke, poke, poke"

"That would be Murphy. You can swat him away if he's bugging you"

"Well I don't want to hurt the little fellow" Ty said

I rolled my eyes "if he had a rock twice his size fall on him and come out of it just a little dazed then I'm pretty sure he could take a whack from a Fighting type"

"Little guy sounds tough"

"Oh he is, it's his brain you have to watch out for"

"What do you mean?" It was at this time Murphy decided to stop poking Ty and flew in front of his face "need something mate?"

Murphy giggled "you have a funny head"

"Sorry about him. He's retarded" I apologized

"Won't it hurt his feelings to have you say that?"

"Oh I don't mind; I know I'm re…re…re…stupid. But I don't care, I'm already happy" he said

"Well that's a ripper attitude mate"

"So where exactly are we going?" Aura asked

"The bugger is held up in some kind of giant human den, think it might have something to do with it before it died"

"Probably not; spirits can end up anywhere after they die, it's probably not related" Floret answered

"And the trouble maker just had to drop in here"

"Wait, if the spirit is so far from where you live, how is her bothering you"

"My bet is that this 'Human den' is a mansion. Certain spots on the planet become a sort of mass of spiritual energy whenever something 'big' happens there, the 'bigger' it is the more energy there is; positive spiritual energy provides a serene atmosphere, temples are built in places like this. Negative spiritual energy is less concentrated then positive spiritual energy, but it spreads out farther, these act as a sort of 'net' for spirits and trap them in. they can't leave the boundaries of the negative energy and are drawn to its center. Most likely a family was killed here, happens in mansions all the time, leaving a huge mass of negative spiritual energy, your town could very well be in range" I explained

"So what's the plan mate, you seem to know what you're doing"

"The spirit should be getting visions of the event that caused to negative spiritual energy to be created, the first thing we need to do is figure out what happened there. After that…well, we'll see"

"It depends on the details around what happened" Floret finished

"How much longer?" Arc asked

"Not too long before we hit the first checkpoint" Ty answered

"The first what?" and then the attack started. Several small forms darted at us. I couldn't see what they were since it was so dark

"Here they come!" Ty called out. He knocked three back with a mid-air Triple Kick "don't Lethem latch onto you; they'll suck you dry and more will come, also watch out for the invisible buggers"

"Invisible!" Arc panicked "Ouch!" he yelled "one of them is on my leg"

"Get'em off ya mate!" Arc stabbed at a place on his leg, the air was a little blurry there for a second

"That was close" Arc sighed

"We're not out of the woods yet mates, those buggers fell back to regroup" sure enough there were no more of them around

"They gave up quickly" Aura remarked

"Farm from it shela; they're just trying to wear us down"

"So how do we beat them?" Arc asked

"Get'em at the source" Ty smirked

"It's as good a plan as any, let's roll" I said. So we took off running again

"You sure you know the way Ty?" Floret asked

"I've been there a bunch o time's meself, I know where we're going. No need to worry little lady" four more figures came from a tree but Murphy blew them away with a Gust attack

"Murphy do good?"

Ah Murphy, his simple nature makes him so loveable "Murphy do good"

"Yay" two more came from out of nowhere, but I got rid of them by throwing a Bone Rush at one and using Aura Sphere on the other "Yay Bane"

"Stop" Ty said abruptly "Lets rest in this cave" sure enough there was a cave there

"Should we really be waiting time like this?" I asked

"Trust me mate, we could use a good rest. Those buggers out there are about to get vicious. Lets rest up while we can"

"He _does_ know what he's doing" Aura pointed out

I thought for a minute "true" so we walked to the cave

"They don't seem to bother us in here and a right good thing too, since they're about real vicious. We'll need to be careful once we get passed the bare Oran berry trees" Ty explained to us "there doesn't seem to be any end to them, we'll have to rush em."

"How far have you gotten before?" Floret asked

"I used to be able to reach the…'mansion?' is that what you called it?" I nodded my head "but after the trees started getting bare around there I couldn't even get this far, I'm surprised they haven't overwhelmed us yet"

"Must be our numbers" Arc suggested

Ty grunted in approval "that sounds right"

"Should we get going now?" Aura asked

"If everyone's ready we will" we all nodded "right then. Let's get those buggers"

"Wait!" Murphy yelled

"Something wrong little fellow?" Ty asked

"We need to do the thing Bane" he wined, fortunately I knew what he meant

"Oh all right" I cleared my throat "CHARRRRRRRGGGGGGGEEEEEEEEE!" and we ran

"Nice set of pipes the mate" Ty said

"Thanks"

We ran for a few minutes before Aura spoke up "shouldn't there be some of those swarm guys here?" sure enough we had yet to encounter one since we had left the cave

"This isn't right" Ty mumbled

"Something is definitely up" Aura said

Floret turned towards Ty "Where is the mansion anyway?"

"It should be through these bushes" Ty pushed them apart and we followed him, sure enough there it was; a giant rundown mansion. And inside was the spirit we had to exorcize.

Well that's chapter 14. Hope you liked it. Big question left unanswered in this chapter; who or what is the spirit haunting the mansion, how did they die, what horrible thing happened there, and what are those swarms that kept attacking the party? Oh well, maybe they'll be answered next time. Read and review but remember; if you can't say anything nice don't say anything at all


	15. Ghost Busted Pt1

Well here it is; my first 2 part chapter! Sgreman and I worked something out to get rid of the impending plot holes. Thank you Waveripple of Team Sunrise and Alex999139 for reviewing.

**Chapter 15 ghost busted Pt.1**

"So that's a mansion…" Floret stared at the building in question

"That must have been a right big family" Ty mumbled

"Not really" I corrected "most family's that live in mansions just do it to be better than others"

Aura blinked "that…doesn't make sense"

I shrugged "I never said they're logic was sound"

"You seem to know a lot about humans mate" Ty commented

"That's because Bane is a reborn" Arc replied. I winced

"Huh, well that's helpful" he replied. I let out a breath in relief

Aura looked around a bit "so…we going in or what?"

"We really should" Floret nodded in agreement. So we went in the door. We found ourselves in what looked to be a foyer (I haven't seen too many) the walls were all made of some kind of grey wood, and there were three hallways; one in front of us and two to the left and right. And there was a staircase on the right side

"Any idea where that bugger might be?" Ty asked

"You sure say bugger a lot" Murphy said

"Well I have a few other things I'd like to call it, but I'm not about to say in front of a couple of ladies" he explained

Murphy giggled; not a good sign "silly Ty, there's no ladies here. Only a girl and a 'just one of the guys.' Whatever that is"

Aura slapped me "'just one of the guys!'"

I nursed my injured cheek "geez Aura" lucky for me Ty came to my rescue

"You two said you were from the Eon temples right?" Floret and I both nodded "is it true that people from those temples aren't allowed to mate someone from the other one?"

Floret and I looked at each other, and she nodded "yes. It's to ensure that the relationship between both temples mirrors that of Latias and Latios"

Suddenly Murphy flew up in my face and started repeating "Bane, Bane, Bane, Bane-"

I sighed "yes Murphy?"

He held up the coconut "my friend hears crying"

I sighed even deeper "Murphy, I don't think-" but Floret interrupted me

"I hear it too" she said with one raised ear

Murphy made some kind of fanfare noise "Charge!" as he flew down the hallway in front for us, then he stopped, came back, and started looking around "Bane, where is the crying coming from" I groaned

Oddly enough; Ty answered "Behind you" Murphy did a quick 180 and started looking around. Ty sighed "It's a bit to have a lend of him" I eyed him wondering just what that meant, although I had a pretty good idea

"Nothings there" Murphy finally noticed

Aura face palmed "I've had enough of this" she closed her eyes and her dreadlocks rose for a few seconds "second floor" she ran up the stairs and we followed suit. She ran past…I think it was three doors, oh well, that's not important, what I saw along the way is; several pictures all covered in dust. In each of them I only ever saw 4 people; a young boy, a young girl, an older women and an older man, in other words; a stereotypical family

"This cannot end well" I mumbled

Just the Aura skidded to a stop by a closed door, since none of us were ready for it we nearly knocked her over "Watch it!" she glared

I was about to cover my face in anticipation of the imminent pounding when I heard Ty say

"Strewth! I hear it too"

"Is something wrong with it?" Murphy asked

I crossed my arms and thought for a second "some spirits just cry to lull people into a false sense of security

"Really?" Ty asked surprised

"it was something like that" I replied not completely remembering what my mom had said about it

"Does that mean that this sprit is hostile?" Arc asked

Floret nodded her head "I believe so" she said with a little worry in her voice

Ty scoffed "well this bugger isn't within a Cooee of getting the drop on old Ty here"

Murphy landed on my head "Bane" he whispered

"Yeah?"

"Ty's talking funny"

"So I've noticed

"Ok, just wanted to make sure you knew" he flew off my head. Ty's voice brought my attention back to the others

"-Then I drop down the hole and-" I shook my head

"Why don't I just go in there with an Aura Sphere charged up, shoot it at the spirit, and you guys rush him or her"

Ty started mumbling something, all I caught was "ruin a pretty spiffy plan"

I started charging an Aura Sphere "can someone get the door?"

"I'll do it" Floret grabbed the handle "wait, how do I open this?"

"Turn the handle"

She fiddled with it a bit and then said "ok, I got it. Ready when you are big bro"

I nodded to her, then started counting down in my head '3…2…1!' "Now!" Floret pulled the door open and I rushed in, I spotted the spirit and took aim. One second before I fired, my brain finally registered what I was seeing. I put my hand down, the Aura Sphere shrinking into nonexistentince.

Floret was the first to run in "Big brother! Is something wrong?" then she saw the spirit and her hand went to her mouth as she gasped "dear Eon…"

The others ran in too…and gasped as well. Ty dropped his head and said under his breath "aw root, so much for this being a piece of piss"

Normally Aura would have smacked someone for saying something like that, but she (like the rest of us) was to shocked to function normally

In front of us was a sniveling baby Cubone spirit. His head shot up to see us, he squeaked in fear and hid his head under his hands. Floret walked up to him "oh you poor thing" she got on her knees and pulled him into a hug "it's ok now" she whispered, the little guy started to calm down. Floret was wonderful with children, I knew she would make a great mom someday.

I started planning our next move when Ty gave me a little jab with his elbow "so what's the plan mate?" truth be told I was drawing a blank, mom never went over stander proceeded for dealing with kids that were too young to know what was going on, and by the looks of it might have been still nursing. First things first, I had to see what I was working with

I walked up to Floret and the young Cubone "hey there little guy"

When he heard my voice he started panicking again until Floret calmed him back down "shhhh, its ok. That's my big brother, he's not going to hurt you"

I waited for a bit to let him relax "you calm now?" I asked him. he nodded his head "good, can you tell me your name?"

He sniffed "Morton"

Ok, so he was capable of answering, that's a start. "good. Morton, do you understand what's happening?"

Tears streamed down his face…ok so they weren't tears, but my mom told me about them and said that they were the spirit equivalent of tears "I'm dead aren't I?"

I nodded my head solemnly "I'm afraid so"

"What's goanna happen to me?" he asked slightly shaking

"We're here to help you pass on to the spirit world" Floret said

His eyes lit up "really?"

Floret gave him a warm smile "really"

Ty gave an impressed whistle "a Spunk, sweet as sugar, and motherly to boot. That Floret is one fine Sheila, the poor girl must be beating them back with a stick"

I turned around to face him "_I'm_ the one beating them back, and I don't bother with a stick, my fists are 3 times as hard. And even that doesn't work sometimes"

Floret got up and turned to us "guys, we need to figure out what we're going to do" just then a draft came into the room (it felt like it came from the floor). I held my arms close together to keep warm, and I checked on Floret to see if she was ok, on par with my big brother instincts. The cold itself didn't seem to bother her to much thanks to her fur coat, but the wind was blowing her fur up (giving her a windswept look) which left her embarrassed "oh my"

I turned to the others to see how they were (knowing that this house was the epicenter of some series negative energy and crazy things could happen) what I saw made me twitch a bit; Arc and Ty were staring at Floret slack jawed with a bit of blood leaking out of their noses "holy…" was all Arc managed to say

"I think I just cracked a fat" was what Ty said, although I have no idea what it meant

I stepped in-between Floret and the two guys "if you two are done ogling my sister, then maybe we can figure out what to do next!" I grabbed their jaws and snapped them shut. I was a little pissed, Floret was a blushing wreck, and Aura slapped them

"Perverts!"

They were both rubbing their sore cheeks "I'm not proud of what I did" Ty said glumly

Arc however took a different approach "well how come you're not getting mad at Murphy for staring!"

We all turned to look at my flying friend, and sure enough he was staring at Floret. However, unlike the two morons next to me he wasn't slack jawed, nor did he have blood leaking out of his nose. Instead he was giggling "your fur looks funny Floret" that's Murphy for you. He's the only guy our age that I trusted around Floret like that; he wasn't a sex starved brain dead idiot, he was just a normal brain dead idiot

I faced Arc again "do you still want me to answer that? Or are you good?"

He sighed "no, I'm good." I took another quick look at Morton, the poor guy. We just had to help him

*Elsewhere (Yay foreshadowing time)*

Run, run, run, run. That's all he thought about, all he did. Just run. He had to escape, had to get away from _him_. Young Eevee was panicking inside, but he had to stay calm, he was the calm one, if he lost it then the others would too. "Not good, not good, not good" he chanted to himself. _He_ had his friend, had their friend, they had to save him, before the unspeakable happened.

"Hey 'A'" his other friend called out with their customary greeting, it was a Gible

"What's down 'D'?" he responded in the usual manner

"Nothing good; I got separated from the others"

"Me too"

"There's no way the two of us stand a chance against _him_"

"Make it three" a depressed voice said; a Bagon

"Sup 'P'?" the Eevee greeted in their code

"How can you be so calm about this! We're all going to die" the Bagon yelled

"Come on man, it's not over yet" the Eevee responded

"No, but it will be shortly" a new, malicious voice said"

The three young Pokémon gasped "it's _you_!" the Gibe sneered

"Where's our friend!" the Eevee demanded

The voice chuckled "you mean him?" the voice gestured to its battered Duskull captive

The Duskull started coughing "g-guys"

The Eevee was starting to panic "don't worry man, we're goanna save you"

The voice chuckled "not if I do this" *crash!* a single tendril broke through the Duskull's face mask, then the voice dropped him; dead

"NO!" the young Eevee rushed to his downed friend, he tried nudging him with his paws, but failed to get a rise out of him "he's, he's dead" then he turned to the voice "you killed him!"

The voice chuckled "well of course I did, you were watching right?"

The Eevee started shaking in rage "you! Just wait till our friends get here!"

"You mean them?" and just like that a mound of un-evolved Pokémon appeared in front of him

"No" the Eevee was at a loss for words, fear starting to replace his rage

"You three are all that's left, and I think it's time we end this" the voice said as it closed in on the three remaining Pokémon

"AHHHH!" they screamed in fear

"AHHHH!" the Eevee screamed in terror, he was in a cold sweet 'a dream, it was just a dream' he thought to himself, then he shook his head 'no, not a dream; a memory' he heard footsteps and lifted his head to see who it was

"Hey 'A'" his friend said

"What's down 'D'?" the former Eevee said back

"I should be the one asking that, we heard you scream"

"And it was your turn to check on me?" he finished

She nodded "pretty much" then a sigh "you had that dream again didn't you?"

"Yeah, I swear that's goanna haunt me till the day I die"

"But you've got to let go, it's over now"

He shook his head "no, it's not over, not yet

Well that's part 1. In part 2 there's a little surprise and Morton's exorcism. Read and review but remember; if you can't say anything nice don't say anything at all


	16. WoW Murphy Pt1

I know you've all waited a long time for ghost busted Pt.2 and the answers to many questions you have about this sub-arc. Well I am here to tell you that today all your questions will…not be answered. Sorry but I've been having trouble with this chapter, there were supposed to be 2 more chapters in this sub-arc and I only have about 150% worth of chapter materiel. Not only that but I've been having some family, and my Honors Java class has been keeping me busy. So instead I decided to post something I was planning on posting later to show you that I'm still alive: the first chapter of ALNMBE: Arc0 (think Pokémon chronicles)

**Arc0-1 WoW Murphy! Pt1**

A/N in order for this chapter to make sense it will be in 3rd person, it was goanna be from Murphy's POV but then I realized no one would understand any of it if it was

Deep in a forest unexplored by humans for some reason, a single Burmy was hopping along on his way to visit his new friend. As you may have guessed this Burmy's name was Murphy and the friend he was off to visit was the Legendary Mew. Murphy found his way to the tree of life with little difficulty (a plot hole itself) only to find to two Machamp guards at the entrances, of course Murphy (being Murphy) had no idea they were guards and thought they were just standing there for no real reason. When he walked up to the door one of the Machamps put his foot in Murphy's way, he paused for a second before moving to the right, the foot followed him, then to the left, the foot followed him again. After thinking for a few minutes Murphy had a plan to get past him "excuse me, your foot keeps getting in my way" he said to the Machamp blocking him

He rolled his eyes "gee sorry, my bad"

"Oh it's ok. I'm sure you're not doing it on purpose" he said genuinely. Both of the Machamps stared at each other for a second, neither sure how to respond to that, when one of them got an idea

"You wouldn't happen to be Murphy would you?"

Murphy beamed "yep"

"Err, sorry about that" said the Machamp who had blocked him as he moved his foot out of the way

"It's ok, see you later guys" Murphy said as he entered the tree of life

After he was out of earshot one of the Machamps said to the other "man, I thought Mew was kidding about him"

"You're not the only one" sighed his friend

Murphy continued hopping along until he reached a room filled to the brim with human technology; Mew's game room. And there, playing on a computer with a lightning bolt shaped monitor, was Mew it's self "oh hey Murphy" Mew waved when he saw him

"Hey Mew. So, what's the plan today?" Murphy asked

"We're goanna slay some dragons in WoW" and the under his breath he added "those pesky dragons have been a thorn in my side for long enough" then he continued "the others will be logging on to help"

Murphy's eyes lit up "you mean we'll be playing with your band?"

Mew raised an eyebrow (or something like that) "my band?"

"Yeah, your band. You know; The Legendaries"

Mew chuckled "Murphy, it's a good thing you're funny"

Murphy tilted his head "um…thanks?"

"The Legendaries aren't my band, they're the gods"

Murphy took a moment to take this in "so I'm not goanna meet a rock band"

"Nope, you get to meet the gods instead"

"Aw man, I really wanted to meet a rock band" he said disappointed

Mew sighed "only Murphy" then Mew pulled out an apple "oh Murphy" not one second after he finished saying his name, Murphy was latched onto the apple gnawing on it

"Oh yes, yes, YES! Sweet appley goodness" he moaned in delight

Mew chuckled again "man Murphy, you are a riot" Murphy of course didn't hear Mew seeing as how he was to focused on his apple

After a few minutes (that thing's almost twice his size) Murphy had finally finished the apple "Ah, did you know I like apples Mew?"

Mew rolled its eyes "how does your Riolu friend put up with you?"

"You mean Bane? Not sure, what brought that up?"

Mew sighed "oh Murphy" after a few seconds "Well, let's get started" and with that Mew summoned a second computer out of nowhere (because it could) right next to it's

Murphy started hopping around with joy "Yay! The streets will be filled with blood!"

Mew sighed "Murphy it kinda loses its effect when you say it cheerfully"

"Oh, sorry Mew"

"It's ok, now let's murder some dragons"

*Sometime later*

(A/N just a heads up; I have never played WoW before in my life, I had to look up all this stuff. So if the gameplay seems off, you know why. Also I'm just gonna make up monsters and the dungeon their in)

After several quick and rather pointless skirmishes, the team of 9 made their way to the cave entrance "jeez, it's about time" complained the Warrior

The Paladin chuckled "Mew, you really need to chilax"

The Warrior (now known to be Mew) flipped off the Paladin and said "stow it Hippy"

"Wait, why am I the Hippy? Rayquaza is the Druid here" asked the Paladin

"And more importantly how did you flip the bird?" asked the Rouge

"My secret" replied Mew

"Anyway, I think we need to come up with a plan of attack now" suggested the Warlock

"Good idea, anyone remember the monsters in there?" asked Hunter

"Doesn't the layout change every day?" asked the Paladin

"I think he's right Dialga" confirmed the Priest

The Hunter (Dialga) sighed "ok then, how are we supposed to come up with a plan then?"

"Why don't we just send Darkrai in there?" asked the Paladin

Darkrai (the Rouge) grunted "sure, use me as a decoy. Why not? Everyone does it!"

"But can't you scout with your sneaking move?" the Paladin asked

Darkrai sweatdroped "oh yeah…that."

"What was that about always being used for a decoy?"

"Oh…err…nothing"

"You sure?"

"Yeah"

"…You want to talk about it?"

Darkrai sighed "no. Now drop it, now!"

Someone's touchy" mumbled Rayquaza

"Enough plotting!" demanded Mew, who then for some strange reason started speaking in a Russian accent even though there isn't a Russia in the world of Pokémon ergo no such thing as a Russian accent, but hey; Mew is the embodiment of chaos, why should anything Mew does make sense? "I say we go in there and spill much blood. It will be fitting revenge for the great dishonor they have given me"

"Dude I know for a fact you've only been in there once. What kind of 'great dishonor' could they have given you?" the Warlock asked

"They killed me, I never stood a chance!"

"Well serves you right for trying to solo this place, what the crap was going through your head then!" the Priest asked

"Something about Nazis but that's not important right now"

"Come on guys, give Mew a break" said the Mage

Mew nodded at the Mage "thank you. At least someone here appreciates me!"

The Hunter face palmed "ugh, could you guys just shut up so we can come up with some kind of plan?"

"I saw we wing it" Mew suggested

The Hunter glared at Mew "that's what you always say"

Mew shrugged "I go with what works"

The Warlock put his hand on the Hunter's shoulder "just relax Dialga"

Dialga swatted his hand away "not now Palkia"

"Hey Giratina; you got your guide with you?" Mew asked

Giratina (the Priest, ironic, don't cha think?) replied "uh yeah, why?"

After some boring research via Giratina guidebook over his web cam and THE ALMIGHTY INTERNET, Dialga finally had a plan "ok I think I got it; what we need to do first is-" but before she could continue, someone interrupted her

"Alright times up lets do this. ARCEEEEUUUUSSSS! THE PALADIIIINNN!" (I don't think I need to say who this was) ran into the cave

The Mage giggled "that was funny"

Dialga's eye twitched "I am so gonna chew his balls off"

Mew had an evil grin "kinky"

Dialga glared at Mew "I hate you so much right now"

Now earlier on I mentioned that there were 9 members to this merry (and I use the term lightly) band, yet you have only heard from 8 of them. That's because the ninth member in his infinite wisdom had decided it would be smarter to stay quite (and boy was he right.) Now, however, he thought it best to speak up "it seems Arceus is still ailing from foolishness, I had best go and fetch him" he was a mighty Death Knight, and if the sound of someone's voice could be described as Bloody, Nightmarish, and "DEAR LORD IT BURNS" then that's total what his voice would be described. Unfortunately they don't so you just have to use your imagination.

As luck would have it; Arceus hadn't gotten too far, two Void Golem, a monster that more or less looked like a charcoal giant, had gotten in his way "you have got to be kidding me" he slashed at one of the Golem only to have them both smash him "hey! That was not cool guys"

"Your words are wasted on them Arceus; these beasts have not the ears for wisdom, or the things that come out of your mouth. In the respect I envy them" the Death Knight said as he cast Blood Presence (Death Knight self-buff; boosts damage done by 15% and heal him/her for 4% of damage done to an enemy)

"Medieval burn…nice" Arceus didn't really care that he had just been insulted, it took more than that to get to him

The Death Knight nodded "I thought you would enjoy it" the Death Knight said as he stepped into Arceus's Retribution Aura (deals holy damage to any enemy that attacks an ally) "now, lets us dispatch these abominations" the Death Knight swung his sword at the Golem he was facing

"Sound good to me" Arceus replied using Crusader Strike (An instant strike that causes 75% weapon damage.) on the one to the left, but before any of them could attack again, they heard a familiar voice

"Eat fire!" yelled Palkia as he cast Rain of Fire (Calls down a fiery rain to burn enemies in the area of effect with Fire damage over 8 seconds). Already stunned and weakened by Arceus and the Death Knight, Fire Rain murdered those two Void Golems

The Mage came bouncing up "wow! You two were amazing!"

"But I'm the one that killed them" sulked Palkia

"Uh guys, why is it that only one of you came to help me?" Arceus asked a bit annoyed

"Because you're an idiot" Dialga replied

"What she said" Giratina and Palkia chimed

"Discard your fears Arceus, for I shall not stand idly by whilst my companions are attacked" the Death Knight reassured him

The Mage giggled "You talk funny"

"Thank you. it's nice to know I can count on somebody in this party" Arceus said

"So…what now?" Rayquaza asked.

Everyone turned to Dialga "*sigh* screw the plan, lets just wing it"

"YES!" Mew cried out "now that's what I'm talking about"

The Death Knight nodded "shall we advance into the cave then?"

Mew started walking ahead "lets kill these things already!" but the Death Knight stepped in front of Mew

"Would it not be wiser for me to take the lead?"

Darkrai nodded "he's got a point, let the tank lead"

"Oh fine, but I'm behind him, that way I get first dibs on killing things" Mew demanded

"Fine with me" Giratina replied, then he turned to the Death Knight "lead the way Murphy"

Murphy nodded back "gladly" and with that they delved deeper into the cave

HA! I had you thinking that the Mage was Murphy, but no, he's the Death Knight! I have to say that this was hands down my favorite chapter to write so far, and there's even going to be a part 2 *epic happy face.* Anyway, next I WILL finish up the Ghost sub arc thingy, so don't worry. Read and review but remember; if you can't say anything nice don't say anything at all


	17. Ghost busted Pt2

Sorry this chapter took longer than usual (again) but I had the misfortune of having my harder classes first semester, now that its winter break the updates will start coming sooner. Thanks Waveripple of Team Sunrise and Alex999139 for reviewing (since I forgot to thank you last time). I'm surprised no one got the RvB reference in the last chapter. I can guarantee _none_ of you will see the ending coming in my longest chapter yet

**Chapter 16 ghost busted Pt.2**

"So what's the plan?" Arc asked

"Well first we need to find out what happened here" I answered

"But I thought you said a bunch of people died here"

I sighed "that was just a guess"

"Oh"

I looked at Floret and nodded at her "Morton" she said to get his attention "we need to ask you a few questions, ok?"

"Ok" he answered

"Have you been having any visions, like a memory of something you weren't around for?"

Morton nodded "there's this really scary one; there's a bunch of people, I think they might be humans, then there was a 'bang' a bunch of screaming, and more 'bangs'" it's amazing how much he reminds me of Ken- I mean Kaito…just in appearance the two have completely different personalities

I crossed my arms before speaking for dramatic effect "looks like we need to burn the place down"

"Yay! Kill it with fire!" Murphy cheered

"Isn't that a little extreme?" Arc asked

I sighed and lowered my head for added effect "this place is stained with blood, it has to go"

"Sweet! Burning down a mansion is on my bucket list" he pulled a list out of his quills along with a pencil…I'm not sure how he held either

Ty raised an eyebrow "bucket list?"

Myself, Arc, and Murphy all answered this one "it's a list of things to do before you kick the bucket" I was pretty surprised that Murphy knew

"How'd you know Murphy?" I asked him

"I saw the movie" was his reply, he flew over to Arc to look at his bucket list "what's 'virajinity'?" it's said that Arc's eyes grew 3 sizes that day

"What's it say?" I asked

"'loses my 'virajinity'" Murphy answered

Aura winced in disgust, Floret blushed very heavily and covered her face, Ty started laughing, and I just sighed (something I was starting to do a lot more often) "it's pronounced 'virginity'" I was really not looking forward to explaining what that meant to Murphy

"Ohhhhh. That word"

"You know what that means?"

"Yep. Virginity (noun): **1.** **virgin state; **the state of being a virgin, **2. unspoiled state;** the state of being untouched, unexplored, or unspoiled" I wasn't sure how to responded to that

"Don't worry mate" Ty said patting Arc on the shoulder "we're all looking for that special Sheila to do the naughty with"

"Ugh, I'm goanna need to repress this" Aura said rubbing her head

"Hey wait a second" I said as it hit me "how can you read Murphy?"

"Mew taught me"

"Mew!" Ty said in shock "you mean THE Mew?" Murphy nodded "is your cobber"

"Yep" I doubt Murphy knew what 'cobber' was, but I wouldn't be surprised if he did

"When did he teach you how to read?" I asked

"After he got me a time share in Hell" for some strange reason I didn't have a hard time believing this "it's really hot in some places and really cold in other places. It's really relaxing there, except for all the screaming, I've always wondered what that's all about"

Ty was having a hard time with this "let, me get this straight; you've been to hell, as a visitor! And are mate's with Mew?"

"Yep"

Ty put his hand on his head in awe…or at least that's what it looked like to me "Strewth"

"Um…am I interrupting something?" Morton asked

"Woops" Arc sweatdroped "got off topic for a bit"

"Again" Aura mumbled

"So how are we supposed to burn this place down?" Arc asked

Murphy shoot up "oh, oh, oh. Pick me! Please pick me!"

I sighed "Murphy"

He did a little fist(?) pump "yes" than he cleared his throat "like this." What happened next defied all logic (and I just know that Mew was involved in it somehow), to this day I still have problems comprehending it; Murphy used Flamethrower. Yes you heard me right; a Bug type used a Fire type move.

"Oh Eon…" Floret gasped

Aura was also dumbfounded "How is that even-" but Arc interrupted her

"Uh guys; the house-"

"Mansion" Murphy corrected

Arc grunted in frustration "Whatever! This place is on fire!"

In retrospect we could have just jumped out the window to safety, but there's something about being stuck in a burning building that makes you lose all sense of reason "Run for your life!" Aura screamed. We did just that…except Morton, he was already dead

"Murphy you're an idiot!" I yelled

"Aw Bane, I love you too" and he hugged me…right on my snout…in front of my eyes

"Murphy I can't see!"

"Woops, sorry Bane" he repositioned himself to the top of my head

"Does he not understand that our lives are in danger?" Ty asked

"Look at all the pretty fire" Murphy said in awe

"That answer your question?" I asked rather sarcastically

"Wait, how is it spreading so fast?" Arc asked in a panic

"My bet would be the evil energy" Ty mused "right?" he looked to me for conformation

"No, this house-"

"Mansion"

"-is just really old"

"Oh" Ty said embarrassed

Than I felt it again; that ominous wind. "Meep" I heard Floret cry out in surprise "what's with this wind? Even during a fire…"

"My Murphy senses are tingling" Murphy said in a bad attempt to be dramatic

"Well that sounds painful mate" Ty grimaced

"Up, up and away!" Murphy called out as he flew off my head

"Murphy you idiot!" Aura yelled "get back here before I pound you!"

I yanked on my dreadlock (which hurt a lot) "guess we have to go find him" so I started to use my aura sensing powers…only to be confronted with a large amount of pain "ARGH!" I fell to my knees

"Big brother" Floret rushed to my side "what's wrong?"

"Aura overload?" Aura asked confused, I just nodded my head "but how? It wasn't the bad before." An aura overload is when a Riolu or Lucario tries to use aura sensing when there's too much aura around, I guess it's like gluing two flashlights to your eyes and turning them on, except a lot worse, fortunately it doesn't really do any permanent harm; just makes you dizzy and gives you a killer headache

"You gonna be ok mate?" Ty asked helping me to my feet

"It's nothing permanent"

He smiled "well that's ripper," then his expression changed to a slightly embarrassed one "um, hope I'm not out of place by asking this but; is Aura by any chance your cook? One of the strangest questions I've ever had someone ask me (not counting any of Murphy's that is)

"Um…no"

He started blushing even more "sorry 'bout that mate, it's just your blue's made me think you two were involved"

"…I don't think we're both using the same definition of cook here"

He tensed up "oh bugger. Can we just forget this conversation?"

"Fine with me"

Aura grabbed both of our heads and bonked them together "will you two shut up! We need to look for Murphy!"

"We were already done" I grumbled

"Couldn't we just leave him here? He's got a pretty impressive indestructible streak going" Arc suggested

"Tempting, but I'd feel bad if we did" I replied

"Um guy's" Floret said trembling "the fire"

I felt pretty stupid; the fire had already spread to our side of the house-

Mansion

Not now Murphy. Anyway the fire had spread to our side on the _**mansion **_rather quickly "how is it here already! Fire doesn't spread that fast!" Arc panicked

"Don't forget who made this fire" I said

"Good point" he mumbled

"Quiet!" Floret hissed "…I hear him!"

"Well what are we waiting for! Lets go fetch our idiot, and fast" Aura said

"This way" Floret beckoned. So we followed her

I snorted "leave it to Murphy to run _deeper_ into the burning house-"

I was interrupted by an echo "…mansion…"

We stopped "was…that Murphy?" Arc asked

I sighed "I'd be surprised if it wasn't"

"It came from above us!" Floret announced

"The attic?" Arc guessed

"Knowing our luck; most likely" Aura lamented

"Well then lets hurry up to the stair before-" but he was interrupted (lot of interruptions that day) by the sound of wood being smashed, everyone turned to me

I had used Aura Sphere to make a hole above me "hey look; I found some stairs"

Arc took one look at the hole and asked "But how do we get up-" Floret didn't wait for him to finish; she just jumped up, with Aura and Ty following suit "but how do I get-" I picked him up before he could finish "again with the being picked up" and I jumped up through the hole.

When I got to the attic with Arc I was met with an unpleasant sight; more of those 'buggers' as Ty calls them, although they were somehow all in shadows (not easy to do in a burning h…mansion) so I couldn't get a good look at them "oh man, I forgot all about these" I moaned. The others were under attack from them, but none of them seemed like they were in any real danger, so I started to look for Murphy…until I heard a familiar voice

"Hey man; I don't know about you, but I definitely don't swing that way…so could you put me down already?" Crap, I still had Arc in my arms (ugh that sounds so much more gay then it looked)

"Sorry" I said putting him down

"It's ok" not one second after he finished saying that he was blasted by a Shadow Ball into a wall…which had shadows by it…where he got mauled by 'the buggers'

"Arc! Are you ok?" I asked franticly

AHHHHHH! Getem off, getem off, GET THEM OFF!" he answered…followed by the gutting of his attackers

I sweatdroped "he'll be fine" then I heard another familiar voice; Murphy

"Ah ha! I got you now mister spooky!" he declared heroically(?) I saw him fighting just one 'bugger.' Not too long after Murphy's…I'm not sure what to call it, anyway; after it he got blasted with a Shadow Ball.

'This one must be the leader…or something like that' I remember thinking to myself. Then I made myself know to Murphy "you idiot! Why'd you just run off like that!" this was a big mistake

He turned around and saw me "hi B-" but he didn't get to finish; the 'bugger overlord' (heh, cool name right?) grabbed him with…some kind of limb I'm guessing, I'm still not sure what _they_ use to grab things. Anyway (ugh, I need a bigger vocabulary) the 'bugger overlord' grabbed Murphy and turned him around so they were facing each other. Murphy gasped "it's you!" but that was all he got out before tilted his head to the side with a tiny *snap* and dropped his limp body to the floor with a little *thud*

I stood there agape "no…he's dead" that got the other's attention (I could hear them gasp and stuff) I turned my eyes to his killer "you monster! I'll rip out your throat" (you should have seen it; all the fire _really_ made it a dramatic scene) and I ran at him, fully intending to make good on my promises, even if he didn't have a throat…I'd manage. He shot a Shadow Ball at me but I deflected it with a jab from my Bone Rush staff, and with it I pinned him to the wall he was at "this is for Murphy!" I bellowed as I readied the finishing blow…but a voice stopped me

"Murphy?" I briefly hoped it was one of my friends expressing awe at Murphy waking up (which would mean he was alive) but no, the voice was male and definitely not Ty's; it was as monotone as a robot, which meant it had to be the 'bugger overlord.' Once I realized that I was pretty confused; I had been so sure that the 'bugger overlord' was some kind of mindless beast "_that_ was Murphy?"

"Um…yeah" I responded, not sure what to do now

"Then would I be correct to assume that the Lopunny and two Lucarios are Floret, Bane and Aura?"

"How do you-" and then it hit me; that emotionless voice, that odd way of speaking, knowing the four of us, it had to be him, he was from my village "it can't be; Caydy?" and for the first time I got a good look at him; no longer the Nincada I remembered him as, he was a now a Shedinja "Caydy…you killed Murphy" my Bone Rush staff disappeared

Caydy, as per usual, had no emotion at all on his face or in his voice "I deeply apologies for that Bane, I was unaware it was him"

"Murphy" I heard Floret said teary. I turned around to see she was holding his body in a close embrace "goodbye…" we all bowed our heads (at least I think we all did) in a moment of silence in honor of Murphy, when a voice interrupted us

"Did I win?" lo and behold; Murphy lives!

"Murphy!" Floret squeaked as she gave him a bone crushing hug. I took a look at Caydy to see his response; it looked neutral, but anyone who knew him long enough could tell it was some strange mix of awe and frustration

"We all thought you were dead" Floret said still with tears in her eyes

"I know, I did a good job right?" Murphy beamed

I just knew I was gonna regret asking this next question "what did you do a good job of?" And yes; I'm well aware that's probably bad grammar, but I don't know how to phrase it right so I don't care

"Playing dead"

"And why were you playing dead?"

He rolled his eyes "well duh; Caydy killed me in our pretend fight" I remember making quite a few sounds of frustration after he said that, but I can't seem to remember them

"Well then what was that snap I heard?" I asked

Murphy's eyes lit up hearing that "oh yeah, thanks for getting rid of that crick in my neck Caydy"

"Crick" I could tell Caydy was starting to lose it

Arc turned to me "should we even bother?"

I shook my head "lets not." Then I turned to Caydy "what are you doing here by the way?"

Caydy chose his next words carefully "…travailing. You?"

"Exorcism"

"Ah, and might I ask what your plans are after this?"

I really didn't think twice about his question; Caydy was just that kind of guy "to Slateport, to get a ride"

"Where to?"

"Not sure"

"Would you mind if I accompanied you then?"

I shrugged "fine with me" I turned to the others "you guys cool with that?" no one said no "well then Caydy, welcome to the team"

***Caydy the Shedinja has joined the party***

"AH! The voice again" Murphy screeched, but before I could berate him for it, Caydy spoke up

"Bane, who was that?"

"Who?"

"The person who said 'Caydy the Shedinja has joined the party'?"

"You heard it?" I asked in shock, he didn't indicate otherwise "guess you were right, sorry Murphy"

"It's ok Bane"

"By the way; what's the deal with all them buggers that were attacking us?" Ty asked

Caydy took a moment before answering "I'm am well aware that I posses an unnatural power, however I am not yet ready to speak about its origin, a little time is all I ask" I didn't have any reason not to trust him, so I agreed. "Thank you Bane. I suppose we will be departing for Slateport now?"

"Well then I guess this is where we say G'day" Ty said reaching out for my paw

I shook his and replied "yeah, bye Ty"

Then Arc spoke up "Um guys…the house-"

"Mansion"

"-is still kinda on fire" man that made me feel stupid

***In an unknown location***

Arceus was in a giggling fit "Man I love doing that"

A new party member *fanfare* too bad this is the last we'll see of Ty though (he was just someone I came up with at the last minute for to make it a six member team.) This chapter was supposed to be out Christmas…but I had family over, so that made it hard to get away long enough to work on this. I'm not sure if anyone of you got this or not; but Bane _never_ got a good look at the 'buggers' or 'bugger overlord' until he learned it was Caydy. And in case you didn't get it; Arceus was doing the ''has joined the party' thing. Next chapter we get back to the plot at last! Read and review but remember; if you can't say anything nice don't say anything at all


	18. You are a pirate

And I'm back! With the next chapter. You get to see a bit more of Caydy's (pronounced 'K.D') personality and the plot moves along after 3 chapters, plus we (by 'we' I mean you) get to learn a bit more of Murphy and his (Caydy's) history.

**Chapter 17 you are a pirate**

"So this is Slateport" Caydy said "seems sufficient enough for a port town

"What are we looking for again?" Arc asked

"I'm not sure" I answered "he just said to go here"

Caydy pondered it for a minute "the most logical scenario is that he, or some other god, has sent a message to a native Pokémon here who can arrange transport of some kind" then he saw Arc in the corner of his eyes…probably "is there something you believe I can assist you with?"

"Are the rumors about Shedinja true?" he asked

"That depends; which rumors are you speaking of?"

"Like how you're all cold unfeeling killers"

"When you say 'cold' are you referring temperature or emotional manner?"

"2nd one"

"Then no; I was always like this"

Arc poked me with his claw to get my attention "this guy is creepy"

I ignored him "so Caydy; you seem to be taking this whole 'quest from the gods' thing pretty well"

"It is not very surprising that you were chosen Bane; your status as a priest means that you are already their servant, and as a reborn human you have sufficient knowledge should you or your companions ever find yourselves in close proximity with them" Caydy said in a mono-sage like tone

"You mean like now?" Floret asked

"Exactly" was his reply

"Do we have to go in there?" Aura complained "I've had my fill of human villages" she wasn't the only one

I think now would be a good idea to explain where exactly we were; after the *sigh* MANSION burned down and Milton passed on, we took shelter in a nearby hollow tree. In the morning we continued to Slateport, which we were on the outskirts of now "sorry Aura, but we have to if we want to finish this quest"

"Maybe we could pick up a sidequest until we know what to do next" Murphy, pointlessly, suggested

"Uh…I don't think they have any here" I replied

"You sure? I still think I should talk to the villagers just to be on the safe side" ugh…Murphy

"Trust me on this Murphy; nothing good can come from you flying up to random humans and talking to them" I could only hope logic would work

"Aw man. I really wanted to do a sidequest" then he looked at me with his 'sad little Murphy' face, it just rips your heartstrings of completely. So I had to come up with a way to get him to stop…and fast

"Uhhh…well what about the exorcism?" I tried hoping to cheer him up

He just hovered in place for a few seconds before saying "oh yeah…Yay" glad to have that over

It was then I remembered something I needed to go over with Arc, but first I had to get rid of Murphy and Caydy, as luck would have it (and it's about time too) I already had what I needed to get Murphy out of the picture "hey Murphy, is that an apple tree over there?" I asked pointing to…well…an apple tree obviously. I didn't get a response, "Murphy?" I looked over at where I last saw him…he wasn't there, so I looked back at the tree and bingo (ugh, why did I just say that?) Now for Caydy

"I will take my leave" well that was easy

"What? Why?" Floret asked worried

"Bane obviously wants to remove Murphy and myself from this area temporarily"

I'm not goanna lie; I was stunned "and how may I ask did you come to that conclusion?"

"It is quite simple; when you reveled to Murphy that there was an apple tree, a fruit well know by the villagers as the favorite food of Murphy, you had to have know that he would have wasted time there, something you tried very hard to avoid in our little Sitrus berry escapade" ugh, don't reminded me, I swear those apple trees where there as a Murphy trap "considering this, one can only assume that you wish to discuss something without Murphy around; there is only one topic I can think about that would fit this criteria"

I sighed, oh how I sighed "can't get anything past you can I?"

"You have yet to. Now I shall take my leave, for as we both fear; my… presence might intimated Arc…for some reason" and with that he left

I wasted no time "listen Arc, under no circumstance should you ever, and I mean EVER, even mention anything about Caydy's family"

He tilted his head and raised an eyebrow "why? Is it a sore subject for Caydy?"

I shook my head "it's not Caydy I'm worried about" I paused as I looked over at the apple tree "It's Murphy"

"Really? He didn't seem to have a problem with Caydy"

"He doesn't…it's his brother"

"Ok I'm confused; Murphy's brother or Caydy's?"

I sighed "Caydy's. Murphy's an only child"

"What's his problem with Caydy's brother?"

"Lot of bad blood between them…or at least for Murphy, that psychopath seemed to enjoy tormenting the little guy"

"And to think he only has to SPEAK to get Murphy in a fit" Aura mused

"What kinda stuff did he say to Murphy?"

I shock my head "that's the thing; we don't know"

"Well why not?"

"I know this'll sound strange, but-" Floret interrupted me

"It's Murphy!"

"Lousy timing, we'll finish this later Arc"

"But what about-"

"And remember what I said, OK!" I said giving him an aura death glance…ok it might have been a bit much, but I had to make sure he didn't go running his mouth off, it would have been big trouble if he did, and it was for his own safety too

"Ah, that hit the spot. Did I ever tell you guys that I love apples?" Murphy said as he flew back with another apple in his hands

"It may have come up" I replied slyly

"What's that apple for Murphy?" Floret asked pointing to the apple in his hands

"I'm saving it for later" he replied

"Well that's smart" just then we heard a rumbling sound from her stomach "oh dear, I think I forgot to get breakfast" Murphy looked at his apple, then at Floret, and then held it out towards her "Murphy" she gasped "thank you" she gratefully took the apple from him and started eating. Even though he was addicted to apples, Murphy had a big enough heart to share them

"Murphy, that was so sweet of you" Aura cooed

"I had to; apples exist to bring happiness to the world, it would have been mean to keep all the happiness to myself" he replied with that beaming smile of his on his face

"…ok" Arc said scratching his head "I'm still getting used to Murphy here"

I patted his shoulder "don't worry; it takes time"

"By the way; where's Caydy?" Aura noticed

I groaned "don't tell me we lost him! Are all human cities going to be this difficult?"

"You need not worry about me, I would not get lost in such a place so easy" Caydy said…and yes; he did pop out of nowhere

"AH!" Arc jumped "don't scare me like that again man"

Caydy (as usual) maintained a stoic face "I am sorry Arc, it was not my intention to scare you"

"Well now that we're all here, what's our next move?" Aura asked

"I would assume we need only to speak to one of the Pokémon patrolling the outskirts of the town" Caydy answered

The rest of us all looked at each other (sans Murphy) "ok, I'll ask; how do you know about this 'patrol'" I asked, making sure 'patrol' was in air quotes

"I scouted while you were preoccupied speaking with Arc" we all stared at him "what? Did you think that I would waste my time while you were talking?"

I rubbed my forehead "should have seen that coming" I mumbled to myself "ok, second question; why should we find one of them?"

"I had assumed that was obvious; if a Pokémon here had received a message about our arrival then they must have the capability to provide us with transport to our next destination, which would also mean that they would have considerable influence in the local area. That would also mean that they would be capable of organizing a large patrol to watch for our arrival so that they could bring us to whomever received said message, so they could send us to our next objective"

Arc started shaking his head "wow, just…wow" very well put my friend

"I…guess that makes sense?" Floret asked more then said

I shrugged "well then Caydy, lead the way"

So Caydy took us to a Redwood tree (I remember what kind of tree it was because of a _really_ bad joke Arc made, I'm not even goanna say it because it was so bad) where we waited for about…I'd like to say an hour, but it might have just been 30 minutes. Anyway, after however long it was we saw a Sealeo and a Golduck walking our way. The Sealeo approached us first "um…hi. Listen, I know this might sound strange but; are you the guys on the quest from the gods?" I could tell he felt awkward asking that, even without aura powers

"Yep! That's us" Murphy answered for us

They both breathed a sigh of relief "oh thank Arceus, now we can end this tiresome patrol" the Golduck said

"Follow us; we'll take you to the captain. Just remember; you can't tell anybody about where you're about to go" so we did just that, looking back; those two seemed way to trusting for people in their line of business, but I did make a promise so I can't tell you where they took us, but I think it would be ok to at least say we had to go through the sewers (Floret had a problem with that.) Their 'headquarters' was very elaborate; it looked manmade and new

"Wow" Arc said in awe

"Yeah, this place is pretty cool" the Golduck replied

"The captain's room is just ahead" the Sealeo said

"About time" Aura grumbled

"Be nice" Floret scolded aura jabbing her with her elbow. "They're giving us a free ride so we must remember to be polite"

"Yes _mother_" Aura shot back annoyed

We approached a door at the end of the hallway and the Golduck knocked on it "Enter" a gruff voice inside said. He (the Golduck) opened the door and went in, then the Sealeo, then me. The room was filled all kinds of sea related trinkets and the deck look like it was made of wood (because you never know,) but the important part was who was sitting at the desk; a heavily scarred Feraligatr, he (there was no way this _monster_ was female) had an 'x' scar over his right eye which I have to admit look really cool "Johnson, Rodger, who be these landlubbers you done bring here?"

The Sealeo spoke up "the ones you had a vision about captain Silver"

"Oh are they now? Tell me lads; what proof does ye have about this?"

"Well we asked them-"

The Feraligatr got out of his chair fast "you asked them! You asked them! What kind of sorry excuse for pirates are you swabs!"

That caught me by surprise "pirates!"

'Captain Silver' turned to me "aye, we be pirates, what of it wench?"

Murphy snorted "Bane, let me handle this guy" he whispered to me

"Murphy are you sure?"

"Don't worry; I speak pirate" he flew up to Silver's face "arg! I'd belay that kind of speak if I was you, I'll not have some lily livered cog swaber speaking ill of my bucko!" he said in a pirate…accent?

Arc panicked "what's he doing!"

Silver crossed his arms "that be mighty big talk from on not so big, what's to stop me from keelhauling the lot of ya?"

"You black eyed pea! Do ya even have a sea rover!"

I heard some mumbling behind me, and sure enough there was a crowed of Pokémon outside the room, most likely the rest of the crew "oh boy"

"What treachery be this! Mayhaps you'd like a hempen halter 'round yer throat!"

"If anyone be taking a short drop and a quick stop it best be you!" their faces started getting closer and closer

"Well then how's about a grape _down_ yer throat!"

"If ye have the grapes to do it" the Murphy got right in his face and said venomously "corsair" the whole crew gasped in shock

"What did Murphy just do!" panicked Arc. Truth be told; I think we were all panicking (well, except for Caydy) Arc was just to most vocal about it

Silver's eyes narrowed "a corsair am I!"

"You aim to prove me wrong?" Murphy quipped

The two of them just stared at each other for what seemed like forever, then it happened; Silver laughed, yes you heard me right; laughed "I've not seen one so small with balls so big" I think I saw tears coming from his eyes he was laughing so hard "ye be right by me wee one" then he turned to me "what be thy name?"

I was surprised he asked me for my name and not Murphy "Bane"

He nodded "aye, that be the name I heard in my vision, well then we best be getting you where's you's needing to be" then he walked out of the room to face his crew "well don't just stand there you lubbers! Step to lads, step to!" they all rushed to their posts (I think they did at least, they were running somewhere)

Arc walked up to his side "so does this mean we get to see your ship?"

Silver laughed again "'see it'? You silly lubber! You're on it!" the 'ship' lunged and we all fell down (except Murphy and Caydy, or the pirates)

"Big brother! Look at this" Floret called to me, I went to her to find she had found a window, I looked out of it to see only water

Well that's chapter 17. A little back-story and a little foreshadowing (you know I love me some foreshadowing.) Next chapter will have more of both too. Read and review but remember; if you can't say anything nice don't say anything at all


	19. 2000 leagues under the sea…give or take

I am SO sorry it took this long for me to update this story. With gradation just around the corner I'm getting busier and busier. Thank you Waveripple of Team Sunrise for reviewing

**Chapter 18 2000 leagues under the sea…give or take**

Ok, so obviously we were on a submarine; why not? What was really confusing was how A BUNCH OF POKEMON GOT ONE! "Oh boy, I do not do good underwater" Arc panicked, being a Ground type I sympathized with the poor guy

I sighed "relax, we'll be fine…I think"

"That does not inspire confidence" Arc replied

I rolled my eyes "suck it up"

"Wow thanks, now I feel a lot better" he remarked sarcastically. Then his mood changed "I'm assume you know what a submarine is"

"Yeah. I guess that means you do too"

"Anyway, what I want to know is how a bunch of Pokémon PIRATES got a hold of a sub" said

"You and me both" I grumbled

He shrugged "oh well. It's probably one of those things that make absolutely no sense, but when it gets explained to you it…well…makes sense" he guessed

"I hope so" I sighed

Arc looked around quickly "um, where are the others?"

Checking around myself I saw that we were the only two around "crap, a pirate ship-"

Just then I heard a faint echo "…sub…"

Arc was wide eyed, I just sighed…hey, that rhymed "was that?"

"Murphy" I confirmed. "Anyway, a pirate SUB is not a good place to get separated" I crossed my arms for dramatic effect "I'm not worried about Murphy because he can 'speak pirate' and has earned the respect of this silver guy, and well, he's Murphy. Caydy will survive simply because he can scare the fluids out of anyone" and I meant ANYONE. "Aura will be ok; I have no doubt that she'd de-ball any male that tried to mess with her"

Arc gulped "de-ball? Don't you mean castrate?"

"Castration involves sharp objects" at least I think it does

He 'eked' and covered his crotch "are you serious!"

"She's come close on several occasions. Anyway, the only person I'm really worried about is Floret"

Arc gasped "oh no. a poor innocent girl like her on a on a pirate ship-"

"…sub…"

"Um…how does he do that?"

"I'll make you a deal; you find out the secret of life for me, and I'll figure that out for you"

He snorted "geez. You didn't have to be so rude about it. Anyway, (wow, looking back that word REALLY got thrown around a lot in such a short span of time) a poor innocent girl like her on a on a pirate sub is just the kind that pirates like to tie down in a dark and damp cellar, or whatever the submarine equivalent of that is, and violate repeatedly. I've seen a lot of pirate movies"

I cringed "wow! Get your mind out of the gutter! I'm just worried because Floret doesn't do well in new places alone"

"Oops" Arc blushed

I sighed "I really hope this doesn't take too long"

"What?"

"This whole thing"

He sighed…wow, in hindsight (again) we _really_ sighed a lot, guess it's true when they say hindsight is 20/20 "Bane, Bane, Bane; what's the point of an adventure if it's too quick?"

"I meant the submarine trip"

"Oh…yeah I want to get out of here pretty bad too"

I shrugged "I mean sure it's cool at first, but the scenery tends to get pretty repetitive pretty fast"

There was a long awkward silence for a span of time…what? How am I supposed to know how long it was? I didn't have any kind of time keeping device and I'm not omnipotent so just…too much? Sorry, back to the story; "so…what now?"

"Guess we look around, not much else _to_ do" I answered

He nodded "ok, you go do that. I'll find a nice dark corner to cry myself to sleep in"

"Uhhhh" I just stared blankly at him

"Kidding, kidding. Crap man, I'm not _that_ pathetic" he said as he walked off to do his own thing, which apparently didn't involve finding a nice dark to corner to cry himself to sleep in…at least I hope so

Without any real idea what I was doing or where I was going I just started wandering around aimlessly. All the while wondering how a bunch of Pokémon got a hold of a submarine, and while I might not know a lot about submarines or any non standard methods of transportation, this one looked pretty high tech which made me wonder if they stole it from some kind of company like sylph (which wouldn't be that hard for this many Pokémon now that I think about it, because really; who's prepared for an attack from a bunch of wild Pokémon in a _very_ big city?) So I just decided to wander around aimlessly and hope I find something interesting. The boat rides with the old gang was a lot different; at least I had TV…at least I think I did. Do you remember if there was TV on the boats…ugh, now I feel like some lame episode of Dora the explorer. Anyway, long story short I found Aura laying down by herself in a narrow room with a lot of bunk beds "hey Aura"

She turned over to look at me "oh hi Bane"

"Mind if I join you?" I asked

She shrugged "sure"

There wasn't enough space for me to sit on one, only lie down…so that's what I did "so why are you all by yourself?"

"I just didn't feel like being around a bunch of brutes like them" she answered

"You can be a bit of a brute sometimes too Aura" I remarked

"Only when someone pisses me off!" she defended

I chuckled "still, you can be pretty tough when you want. I can remember a number of times you almost de-balled some poor guy"

She snorted "it wouldn't have _almost_ happed if you had just butted out"

I rolled my eyes "geez Aura, I have a pair too, that makes me a little sympathy for them. It's pretty scary when you have a psycho girl trying to rip your package off"

She huffed and was silent for awhile, we both were. Then she said started to ask a _really _strange line of questions "hey Bane, what was that Angela girl to you?"

I turned over in my bunk to face her "well that came out of nowhere, she was pretty nice when she wasn't PMSing, and it felt like she was looking out for me"

"Yes, but what did she mean to you?" she was starting to get antsy

I had to think about that for a minute "well, she did say I was like the brother she never had…or something like that"

Her next question was the strangest of all "did you have a crush on her?"

I raised my eyebrow "is this a trick question?"

"What! No. Look, just, yes or no"

"No"

"I see" she mumbled. I will never understand girls

"What was that!" oh…that's right, I said that out loud. Woops

"Uhh…gotta go" I rushed out as fast as I could to avoid Aura's wrath

As I was running (futile in hindsight since Aura could sense aura just like me) I heard some noise nearby, so I went to check it out. I followed it to what looked like the kitchen, in it I saw a bunch (of what I presume to be) the crew, along with Murphy and Floret. That really reassured me (*sigh* no, that wasn't sarcasm), I was glad to know that Floret wasn't alone, with or without Caydy (it doesn't matter if you trust him, that guy is _always_ scary), and she was really fond of Murphy, we all were. Not only that but he had managed to get the respect of the captain by insulting him…not sure how that works "so what exactly is this 'rum' thing all the, pirates was it, drink?"

"Silly Floret, rum is alcohol" Murphy giggled

She took a moment to think "alcohol…" then it hit her "isn't that the drink that big brother said is just like the funny berry!" the 'funny berry' is just what Floret said it is; a berry that works just like alcohol (I never seen one so I couldn't tell you which it was), truth be told I was tempted to tell Angela about it just to see how'd she react

"Yep" he replied taking a swig of what I assume was rum

"Murphy! How can you drink that knowing what it does to people?" Floret asked horrified

He giggled "silly Floret, alcohol isn't that bad" as he said this, two drunken crew members stumbled over each other "look at everyone here; they're fine. Besides, I think you'd be funny drunk Floret" the only guy who can suggest my sister get drunk and live

"I…I don't know" she looked nervous "what if I do something I regret later while intoxicated, like taint myself…"

"That's what I'm here for Floret; to make sure you don't do anything bad while you're drunk. It's called a 'drinking buddy"

"It still doesn't feel right" she replied in a quiet voice

"Ok, but let me know if you change your mind" he said taking another swig of his rum…as a few more members of the crew stumbling around, I was really worried the people driving were like this too. Since they were just fine on their own I decided to keep exploring the sub. I went looking for the control room (or is it bridge?) wondering if I'd find Caydy along the way, I didn't, but it wasn't that big of a deal since he could be pretty hard to find when he wants to be.

Not knowing where I was going I decided to try my luck and ask for directions, against all odds I managed to find someone who was sober enough to tell me the way. After a little more walking I found my way to the bridge…or whatever, inside I saw the following; generic submarine control things, Pokémon who looked like they had a vague idea what they were doing, and an Alakazam. Note that I mentioned the Alakazam separately from the Pokémon who didn't really know what they were doing. "Looks like we should reach our destination a bit sooner than intended, lucky for us we found that current" the Alakazam said

At this point in time I had never watched a movie with a submarine in it; therefore I had no idea how to make myself known to them without it being awkward. So I did what Murphy said a friend of his would do in a situation like this; wing it "um…hi." Don't give me that look; what else was I supposed to say?

The 'other' Pokémon all jumped at my voice, but the Alakazam remained stoic, he didn't even look in my direction "hello, I assume you're one of our passengers"

"Yeah…that's me" don't get me wrong this guy didn't scare me, he was just a little too much like Caydy for me (I'm just glad he used contractions)

"Any reason in particular you decided to come in here?" he questioned me

I shrugged "just looking around to kill the time"

He turned to face me "fair enough, but would you mind leaving this room, I can't have someone messing around in here" and then our eyes met…

I saw a young boy with a Totodile in his arms running through some kind of facility, he looked terrified. There were sounds of battles everywhere, people crying out in pain, a lot of them probably dying. "Hey! There's the brat" a uniformed man said, what was the uniform you ask? It looked like a sweatshirt, all the rest was blurred; fine details, color, all of it. The boy kept running, kept holding on to that Totodile (who by the way seemed oblivious to the chaos around.) Then the new sets of footsteps that seemed to follow him. Tears running down his face. Then the light, the light of outside, he was so close to the exit…then he tripped, the Totodile flying out of his arms ahead of him. Sharp teeth piercing his skin and then…darkness

We both seemed to come out of our trance at the same time "wa-what was that? Who was the boy in the hospital?" Looked like he had never met another reborn…and I planned to take advantage of it

"What were the chances? I've only ever met a few other reborn" I whistled slowly. "It's a small world isn't it?"

Again, I'm sorry about the late update; senior year has been very hard for me. I'll try my best to get the next chapter out before school ends but no promises. Read and review but remember; if you can't say anything nice don't say anything at all


	20. Destiny's Play

I am SO SORRY! I never meant to be gone this long. My computer broke and my new one didn't have word on it, I've only recently gotten office, I hope I never have to go that long without word again. I want to make one thing clear; I WILL finish this story, even if I have to force myself, even if it drains me of my love for writing it WILL get finished, so NEVER think that I've just 'given up' on it. In this chapter I introduce a character who will play a _very_ big part in this story; I look forward to his formal introduction

**Chapter 19 Destiny's Play**

*In an unknown place*

Arceus was busy pacing around in thought "crap, what do I do?"

Regice walked into the room he was in "uh. Arceus? Are you ok?"

"Oh, hey Regice. Yeah I'm fine, just thought of something" he replied

"What?"

"It's Bane, he's probably going to start asking stupid questions like 'why me' and 'couldn't you have chosen someone else'"

Regice was quite for a few seconds "Actually why _did_ you choose him?"

Arceus' eyes widened "What the! Were you not paying attention at the meeting!"

"That's what we were talking about? I thought you just wanted to complain that someone did something like take the last pudding cup"

Arceus' eye's became bloodthirsty "WHO DID! I'LL TEAR THEIR APPENDIX OUT THROUGH THEIR EARS!"

"Chill out, no one took it"

Arceus' calmed down after hearing that "jeez, don't scare me like that again"

"How was I supposed to know you'd freak out like that? Anyway, what are you goanna do about Bane?"

"I'll need a prophecy, but I'm not sure how I'm goanna get one"

"Duh, just use your IPhone"

"Ah the IPhone, truly there is an app for everything." Then Arceus got serious "see here's the thing; mine broke"

"How?"

"Let's just say they can't handle high speeds and leave it at that"

"Um…ok"

Then Arceus was struck by a flash of inspiration "I got it!" he went to the nearest computer and opened Word, when he did a strange metallic figure appeared coming down a slope of paper

"Looks like you're trying to write an ancient and archaic prophecy about the fate of the world, want some help?"

"I just love this little guy"

*Back with Bane*

I had just finished explaining what a reborn was to the Alakazam, he was stunned to say the least "so…there are others, more of us?"

I nodded "yep. Not counting you I've met 4 reborns in my life…wait, is reborns a word?"

"Wait, 4?" Aura said, I think I should mention that I hadn't known she was there "let's see…there was the Eevee, the Arcanine, and the Mightyena…who am I missing?"

"No one I told you about" was my answer. "He saved my life after I was exiled"

"Who?" Aura asked in genuine surprise, guess it never occurred to her that a lone Riolu wouldn't stand a chance in the wild

"He was a Lucario named Wataru" I said

"Wataru?" Aura responded not quite sure how to take a weird name like that

"…uh…" was the equally confused Alakazam's comment

I shrugged "I know it's a weird name, but he did save me by fighting of a gang of crazy Pokémon"

The Alakazam rubbed his chin…yes I am aware that I didn't know his name at this point "very interesting, by the way, how did he die?"

Now came the awkward part "uh…here's the thing; I don't know"

"Bane, you did look him in the eyes, right?" she had one of her eyebrows (don't remember if I mentioned this yet but I'm still a little confused on the whole Lucario eyebrow thing) in a way that just screamed 'are you kidding me?'

I nodded "that's the interesting part; I did"

"Yet you didn't see his death. Based on what you said that he doesn't sound like a reborn" The Alakazam…you know what, screw it. Here's a spoiler; his name is Allen, that's what I'll be calling him now. Anyway…where was I? Oh right!

I was getting annoyed at this point "look, just listen, I _did_ see something when I looked into his eyes; my own death"

Allen had a confused look on his face "is that possible?"

I sighed "Wataru described himself as 'a piece of stained glass that shows others their colored reflection'"

Aura just looked at me for a few seconds before saying "ok you lost me"

A small smile made its way to my face "hey, that's what I said"

"Would you care to elaborate?" Allen asked

I slouched into a more comfortable position "apparently he died of old age. In his human life he was born with 'the power of a seer,' whatever that is. Anyway, when he was reborn he kept his power. He said that it lets him take a glimpse into other peoples future, but not his own he was very clear one that…though if he saw someone's future and he just _happened_ to be in that scene I don't think that counts-" but Aura stopped my rambling

"Uh Bane, the point please"

"Oh right"

Allen chuckled "a bit of hero worship?"

I rolled my eyes "he saved my life, in an epic yet completely one sided battle, he was nothing short of amazing"

Allen shrugged "the father figure you never had"…did I forget to mention I told him my life story? I did? My bad

"Allen! Where are you ya scurvy ridden potato sack!" a familiar voice called out

Aura's face scrunched into a 'what the heck' one "I'm sorry, what?"

"It's a _very _long story" Allen sighed "I'm over here Silver, and enough with the accent, you know translating it gives me a headache" I swear something tells me that name is more than just one pun

"For the love of-" the dread pirate (which according to Pete is some kind of reference to something, he even demanded I make it) complained "fine! Take away my fun quirk" then he mumbled under his breath "no good human ruining my fun" he walked into the room after that (just to clarify; that whole conversation took place with a wall between them, also he mumbles loud) with the rest of my…our 'party' with him, but that's not what caught my attention

"You know he's a human?"

That surprised Silver, if his raised eyebrow was anything to go by "you told them Allen? You never tell anyone, why these two?"

Allen's mouth curved into a smile so small I didn't even notice it (Caydy later informed me about it in a conversation that is completely irrelevant to the story) "I didn't have to, turns out" he started snapping his fingers towards me (is that how you say it?)

"Bane" I answered

He then continued without skipping a beat "is just like me"

"He is?" Silver was perhaps even more confused (for reasons I can't seem to remember, it never occurred to me to check their aura, which considering I'm a Lucario is pretty embarrassing)

Allen nodded "apparently our 'kind' is called "reborns""

I continued for him "the only surefire way to determine if someone is a reborn is if another reborn looks them in the eyes, then they see how each other died" then I had a though "hey, Allen was it? Anyway, is Silver the Totodile I saw in your death vision?"

Allen turned to me "yes he is. 'Death vision,' is that what it's called?"

"That's what Wataru called it, so I'm sticking to death vision"

Once again, Silver was lacking details "whoa, whoa, back up, who's Wataru?"

And then I heard a familiar voice, only it sounded a lot different (like a techno remix of your favorite country song) "who cares, life is nothing but a black void. This world sucks away at our spirit energy until even our very souls become husks. Our only true hope for salvation is early death"

I couldn't believe my ears "Floret!" I ran up to her "what happened to you?"

"I have seen the light…or should I say "the darkness"

Since I knew that Floret was with Murphy I turned to him for answers, normally a bad move but here it couldn't hurt "Murphy. What happened to her?"

He giggled "Floret's a funny drunk"

"What the? She's drunk!"

Arc shrugged "I honestly thought she was starting some new religion at first, she's talking like some kind of prophet"

Caydy (as per usual) gave no physical indication of how he felt "did you just make an 'all religions are started my drunk people" joke?"

"I…guess I did" he replied

I was naturally worried "can we fix her?"

"Oh, oh, oh! Pick me!" Murphy bounced around

I sighed "Murphy"

"Yes!" he pumped his fist. "Come on Floret, its nap time" he said as he led her away

After they left Silver started to furrow his brow "what were we talking about again? Oh yeah, that Wataru guy" I then told him (and as a result, everyone else who hadn't heard) about Wataru

"Whoa, he sounds awesome" was Arc's response

"Yeah" I said a little dejected

"Is something wrong Bane?" Caydy asked having picked up on my mood

I sighed…again, wow was I depressed back then. Huh, I never noticed that, well that's hindsight for you "it's just; why did the gods pick me for this quest, Wataru would have been much better, heck he even knew how to 'cloud' his aura, something that only high level aura users can do. Caydy's justification for it is I'm a reborn human, well so is Wataru. He's stronger and wiser then I'll ever be" I'll admit that I was feeling pretty down when I said that, but now (knowing what I do about Wataru) I just laugh. Its things like this that makes me think that Angela was right; the world runs on a sense of irony.

"He could be dead" Caydy said pretty bluntly. That filled me with a sense of worry

"Caydy!" Aura was shocked that he said that, I'd also like to take the time to mention that I remember to start reading aura again, subtle like I do most of the time though

"What? I was merely stating what I believe to be a possibility"

"That doesn't mean you have to be a jerk about it" then she started rubbing my back "its ok Bane, I'm sure he's alive" Aura became very sympathetic fast after we became friends

Silver scratched the back of his head "sure sounds like he did a lot more then save your life for you to be this worried about him"

I nodded "he gave me vague details about my 'destiny'"

"Really?"

"Yeah, he said I would play a big role in the fate of the future, but before I could fulfill my role I had to, and I quote; "help a group of misfits gently nudge a begotten soul onto her path in life, and grown stronger in mind, body and soul in the process" unquote"

"Deep" was all Arc said

I continued "He took me faraway to the town I met Angela in, and trained me every day on the road. He said the road to my destiny started in that town, to search for 'the walking corpse with a tongue of steel'"

"Was he talking about Angela?" Aura asked

I chucked "I remember worrying about that, I thought it was her; she had died and liked to swear, that's as close to what he said without being literal. He left me there the same day I met her, and I never got any confirmation. So I still worry I made the wrong choice"

"Well look where you are now; on a quest from the gods. Sounds like you got it right" Arc shrugged

"Thanks Arc"

There was an awkward silence for a little bit until Aura spoke up "I forgot; did we get off topic or was that the real conversation?"

"I'm pretty sure we kept on track" Allen answered

"We were supposed to be talking about this…Wataru guy…right?" Arc asked

"Yeah" was my simple reply

Before anyone else could say anything we heard a voice "land ho"

"Guess that's our stop, I'll get Murphy and Floret" Arc said

Then it was just me and Aura-

Aura and I

Not now Murphy! Anyway, it was just **me and Aura** "so, that Wataru guy sounded pretty hung up on Destiny wasn't he?"

I answered with one of the nuggets of wisdom Wataru had left me "'though we all have the starring role in the plays of our lives, we are all but bit characters in Destiny's Play'"

And there it is, Chapter 19 at last. Again everyone; VERY sorry about the long wait, I had computer problems. The next chapter won't take **nearly** that long to come out, don't worry. Read and review but remember; if you can't say anything nice don't say anything at all


	21. The other white…err…clearish blue mea…cr

Time for chapter 20, I'll admit I'm a bit worried that my unwilling hiatus alienated my fan base; I just hope things pick up. Also before I start this chapter there's something I want to show you;

Regi rock

Regi steel

Regi gigas

Reg ice

Make of that what you will, I know I will

**Chapter 20 The other white…err…clearish blue mea…crystal…whatever**

"So this is Dewford Island…city…town…whatever" Arc announced very strongly (is that the right sarcastic adjective?) We had landed; I think that's the right term, not on Dewford, but a nearby Island. Which Silver claimed was the one he saw in his vision…looking back I really should have asked a lot more about it. The good news was there wasn't any humans in sight, one less problem to worry about

"So, does anyone know where to go from here?" Caydy asked

Arc shrugged "since Regice's lair is most likely looks the same as Regirock's does top side we just need to find a place that looks the same"

"Wait. How do you know Regice is here? This is a tropical climate. Ice type Pokémon here makes no sense" Allen pointed out. At Sliver's insistence both he and Allen were to accompany us to meet Regice…ok yes it _was_ Regice

"Well Bane said that Regirock said that we'd meet Registeel last so…" Arc replied, rotating his hand-claw thing on the 'so'. "But I'll admit that an Ice Pokémon here really doesn't make sense" the he started chuckling "where are we goanna find Registeel? In a jungle?" We laughed then, but we didn't laugh later

"Perhaps not; according to you Regirock was found in a desert, which seems like a fitting place for a Rock type Pokémon. Consider all this I would assume Registeel be found in a place with a lot of metal" Caydy said

"Like a mine!" Murphy chimed in

"Wow, that actually makes sense, good going Murphy" Aura said

"Murphy do good?"

"Murphy do good"

"Yay"

Silver sighed "and to think this was that same guy who stared me down, he even overcame my deadly 'evil eye glare'" oh and by the way; we weren't just standing around talking, we were walking around and looking for the entrance to Regice's cave, forgot to mention that "he even knows pirate slang"

"Oh I can speak a lot of languages; Australian, Japanese, Mandarin…and some others…oh, oh, oh, I speak Jive too" Murphy replied…and that's all I'm goanna say about that…ok maybe one thing; Murphy wasn't lying when he said that, in order to lie you need to be aware that what you're saying is not true. That's the thing with Murphy; the question isn't 'is he telling the truth,' rather it's 'is he right.' Just wanted to make sure you guys were clear on that

Floret giggled "that's our Murphy for you"

I nodded "yeah; a total retard, but we wouldn't have him any other way" not even a second after I said that he sneak attack hugged me

"Hug!"

Then I (or we, that's probably more accurate to say) heard Allen speak "uh guys, I think I found it" we all converged on his location, and sure enough he had found the entrance to Regice's lair

"Yep. It looks just like the one we found is the desert" Arc confirmed

We all stood there for what was probably a minute, all of us waiting for someone else to do or say something, until Murphy of all people broke the silence "are we waiting for something?" he asked in a whisper

"No we're-" I paused when I realized that I was whispering for some reason. I shook my head, deciding that I had to be the one to say what everyone (sans Murphy) was thinking "come on everybody, we're not getting anything done just standing here"

Caydy nodded…at least I think he nodded. It was kinda like a body tilt or something, I just assume that's his version of a nod "I was waiting for you to suggest that Bane. After all if the god's themselves chose you for this mission then you must play some very important role in the near future, it would not do for you to take so long to make such decisions, or to wait for others to do so. I consider this a step in the right direction"

Silver started to chuckle "Wow, Caydy was it? Anyway you sure must come from an interesting f-" I didn't let him finish

"Village!" then , not missing a beat followed up with "Murphy quick! What's that!"

Like I expected Murphy turned around and started looking for the 'thing' I saw…I was making it up, just thought I'd say in case you couldn't tell "What! Where!"

Now that he was distracted I turned my attention to Silver and Allen "here's a quick warning; **never** use Caydy's name and the word 'family' in the same sentence around Murphy. It will **never** end well" they probably about to ask why but they didn't get the chance; Murphy came back

"Hey Bane, look what I found; a flat blue rock, this'll go great with the red one Mew gave me" I glanced at it momentarily "was this what you saw?"

"Huh?" Then remembering what I had said to get him out of hearing range replied with "o-oh yeah, that was it, good job Murphy"

"Yay" he cheered

It was then that I noticed Aura hadn't interrupted and berated us for going off topic like we always do (not that her doing so made me mad at her or anything, it was without a doubt her most useful contribution to our little, as Pete would say, 'party.' That's not to say she was a bad fighter, far from it, she could always take me in a fight, it's just we _really_ needed someone to get us back on track) "hey, where'd Aura go?" I asked looking around for her

"Oh, so now you notice" I…uh, we heard an echo from inside the caves…ruins…whatever! You'll have to ask Arc if you want the technical term for it. "Get your butts in the cave now or the cave will be in your butts" she demanded, and when Aura makes threats like that you listen. Not only have I seen her make good on more than a few of them that didn't seem possible at the time (but do now since I've seen them happen,) but the difference in strength between her and the average male Pokémon our age (some of which she's even stronger than) is far less than a human female (which according to James are 'weak' because of a combination social expectations and being born with less muscle mass then a male on average, and I'm not sure about the muscle mass thing, but I know for a fact that female Pokémon aren't expected to be weak...sexist's opinions notwithstanding) compared to their male counterpart's. In short; she probably _could_ put parts of the cave _inside_ of our butts, maybe even further…well she wouldn't do it to Murphy, in fact she'd most likely give me _his_ share for distracting him.

"Coming Aura" I called out as I walked in the cave

Then Arc, for some stupid reason, started making whipping sounds. I turned my head slightly and said "I've seen her make good on threats worse than this one, just because I'm not goanna take a stupid and pointless risk doesn't mean I'm whipped"

Arc's eyes widened "wait, what?" But I didn't answer him, I just kept on walking deeper into the cave…thing…place

I broke out into a brisk pace to try and catch up with Aura, but I found a fork in the road "crap" since I was far from an expert tracker I just went left, no there wasn't any real reason why I chose left, just think of it as a mental coin flip. So I kept on walking down the dark hallway, finding more and more forks, with nothing but my aura senses to guild me, until I heard some kind of cracking sound…one that might have sounded familiar if Arceus hadn't had a carpenter phase. "Uh…what's that sound?" Then the floor under me broke, and I fell onto a slope of ice…well it might be more accurate to say I fell down into a sloped hallway with an icy floor…yeah, that sounds right. My thoughts on that event can be summed up perfectly with the very same words I said then; "**what the hell!**"

The slope…hallway…whatever, turned out to be in a spiral shape…which really sucked, I mean bouncing around on that thing hurt, Steel subtype or not. Not long after I fell I heard a voice echoing "…eeee…" I just knew that was Murphy, my guess was that he too had fell down into one of whatever I had fallen down into, yes I know he's part Flying, but come on; it's Murphy.

It was about that time that I had gotten fed up with that thing, so I brandished a Metal Claw, flipped onto my belly, and dug it in…but it didn't work "what!" it didn't even scratch the ice. It was really too bad too, had I not been stuck on my belly I would have seen the hole up ahead…I really wish I had seen that, it would have saved me so much trouble "AHHHHH!" I screamed as I fell through the hole and landed on my belly…which hurt, my chest spike didn't even do anything to slow me down. I managed to flip back onto my back and saw the new room; like the hallway it too was slopped, unlike the hallway it was…I'd have to say 3 times as big (or at least wide), it also had random ice pillars…I mean _random_, they were just placed about without rhyme or reason, I just knew that hitting one would be _incredibly_ painful, as such I made an effort to avoid them

"Bane!" I heard Aura call out to me. She had somehow latched onto one of the pillars and was holding on like her life depended on it (and after having been through that day, I can safely say it did) "grab on!" she said holding out a hand, I leaned towards her and, somehow, managed to grab her hand…and at the speed I was going it almost felt like my arm was goanna be pulled out of its socket, if I was still human it most likely would have

"Thanks" I gasp

"You're welcome" she replied, we both take a minute to catch our breath (panic tends to take the air out of your lungs) before she asked "Bane…what now?"

I shook my head "not goanna lie; no clue"

Because of our positions I couldn't see her face, so I have no idea what her expression was "does that mean we're stuck down here!"

I shook my head again "nah, we just have to wait for someone" and right on cue a familiar spike ball hits Aura and she losses her grip on the already slippery ice

"AHHHH!" we both scream together, we started sliding at a slow pace…but we picked up speed when a mass of bodies hit us

"Hi Bane. Isn't this fun?" Murphy (who was sliding on his stomach for the simple reason of; he's Murphy) giggled

"No it is not fun!" I screamed "We could die!"

After I said that there was the most awkward silence one could imagine for longer than I can remember, Murphy broke it by saying "Bane you're silly"

Then I heard Floret scream "DEAD END!" and when she said dead end she _meant_ it; an ice wall covered with equally icy spikes

"I CAN'T DIE!" Arc cried

Then Murphy (chaos incarnate) gave us a repeat performance of his miracle in the desert "Coconut buddy powers: GO!" he threw the coconut at the wall…and it sailed through it like a rock through a window, I'm not kidding, that exactly what it looked like. The _entire_ wall crumbled. On the other side I saw the ground flattened and there was another dead end…which we crashed into

It was then that another long silence over took us, this time it was broken by Silver "what the hell just happened!"

To which Murphy replied "let's go again! Let's go again!"

I sighed; typical Murphy, then I heard a female voice "here" and I felt something land on my chest; what I assumed to be the Ice Part

After a wild ride (one that, while awesome, is way too dangerous for a theme park…it's a shame too) the party is rewarded with what looks like the Ice Part, but is it? You'll have to wait for the next chapter to find out. Read and review but remember; if you can't say anything nice don't say anything at all


	22. We can weather anything

Well I'm back with the next chapter. I'm _really_ sorry it took me this long to update, I just started collage so I've been busy lately. To tell you the truth I really want to get this one over with, because the next chapter is when, not only will this story get more fun to write, but all that research I've done can finally get used. Look forward to it. On an unrelated note; this story is now my longest story in _both_ words and chapters

**Chapter 21 We can weather anything**

Before I pick up where I left off, I want to tell you a little story; I know it might seem a little out of place, but trust me, think of it as me telling you the Aesop so you can watch as I screw up. This little story I want to tell you takes place _way_ into the future, after I had assembled most of my…as Pete would say, 'party' and I had even taken on an apprentice…yes, I'm talking about Kaito

(*)

"Master Bane…how much further?" the young Cubone asked me. The two of us were climbing a mountain to reach the other side, the other side of what you ask? The mountain of course! Where were the others you also ask…why there were taking the shortcut. And before you ask; it was training!

"…I'd have to say we're almost half way there" I guessed

"…oh…" he said dejectedly. Now don't get me wrong; Kaito loved (and probably still does) to train…what he didn't love was carrying all of our supplies in a makeshift backpack that weighed about twice his weight…I think, it was twice as big as him…I think. Look I don't carry around measuring devices with me; I have to guess a lot

"How you holding up there Kaito?" I asked him

"Oh! J-just great master Bane" he lied, though it wasn't bad for someone his age, I'll give him that "are we going to be taking a short rest anytime soon?"

I scaled up about what I think was 10 feet in a few seconds, it helps that Lucario have built in climbing gear "nah, we'll be fine as long as we do what?"

He sighed "pace ourselves. There's no point in training if you can't move after you just start"

"Correct" I 'dinged'. I reached my hand down to grab him and help him up

By now he was starting to pant pretty hard "please master, one second. I need a drink"

"Sure thing" nodding, he put the back pack down and pulled out a _recycled_ water bottle (we found a few and started using the to carry water) and started drinking from it greedily, he drank to fast a coughed a little "whoa there, slow down Kaito" I chuckled "you know, it helps to pace yourself when you drink too" he beat his chest and coughed up a little water "hey Kaito, you feeling ok? Do you need me to carry the bag?"

Hearing me offer that his eyes enlarged "n-no master! I'm just fine; I was only a little thirsty" he took a few seconds to calm down "I fully intend to carry out my duty in this training mission. I _will _pull my own weight, and I will _not_ hold you back" the he sighed "If I can never stand on my own two feet, then have no right to journey with you. You yourself taught me that; in a…is 'party' the word Sir Pete uses?" I nodded "yes, in a party, everyone must have one thing they can contribute, they must be able to be strong at times when their teammates are weak" then his little head looked down to the ground "…otherwise they are only a burden…" and then he snapped "oh master Bane!" he sobbed "I am so pathetic and unworthy of your tutelage! I find myself unable to even accomplish this simple task you have given me!"

I walked over to him and kneeled down to look him in the eyes "are you saying that you can't carry the bag by yourself…that you _need_ help?" he nodded, still trying to wipe the tears from his eyes. I sighed "you know Kaito…I envy you" at once he stopped what he was doing and looked straight up at me "you got to learn one of the most important lessons one can learn about being in a party…one that could have saved me a lot of hardship"

"I…I did?...What lesson might that be master Bane?"

"Remember when you were talking about being strong when your allies are weak, about letting them lean on you, to carry them till they can walk again?"

"Yes…but I didn't use those last two metaphors" he answered

"I know, I was just being dramatic" I cleared my throat "anyway. All that stuff about being strong when your friends are weak…it goes both ways"

"…huh?" he asked, even though I could see that he really understood

"No one can be strong all the time, not even me. That's why you don't travel alone, so _you_ can have people to depend on when _you_ get weak. Understand Kaito?"

"Yes…is that what this whole thing was about master; to teach me that?"

"Yep" I answered "you and I can both be pretty stubborn, there are some lessons that need to be drilled, or in my case slapped, into ours heads. Don't be the one who tries to carry the whole team, even when you're struggling to stand, it won't end well"

He bowed his head in respect "I will take this lesson to heart o honorable master"

I patted his on the head "you're a good kid Kaito" I put the backpack on myself and kneeled back down "hop on" with what was probably the last of his energy, he leapt onto my back, on top of the backpack

"Thank you master Bane"

"No problem Kaito, I figure that you're too tired to finish the climb" after taking a few seconds to adjust to the weight I jumped to the next flat surface above us…yes, I rock climb by jumping

After a few seconds, Kaito asked me a question "so master…who 'slapped' this lesson into you?" I sighed "it was lady Aura, was it not?"

"You know me too well kid" I took a small breath "I guess you want to hear the story behind that, right?"

"Yes please master"

"Ok, but it's not one of my better moments; I think it's best to start at-" oh crap, I almost forgot; not supposed to tell _that_ part yet, my bad. Anyway, back to your normally scheduled story

(*)

"So this is the Ice Part" I mused to myself

If Regice had eye, she (?) would most like have done an eyebrow raise "well what did you expect?"

"Something that looked a little different from the Rock Part" I answered

"Well too bad" Regice said rather annoyed

God or not, her attitude was making Aura mad "now listen here you-" but she didn't get far; Regice tapped a button none of us had noticed before, when she did, the roof slid open…then the ground beneath us just rocketed up to the top…and just like last time, we fell in sand…except of course for Caydy

"What was that!" Silver more or less demanded.

Murphy answered by, more or less, saying the one thing on everyone's mind "she's a mean lady"

Allen groaned "and you wonder why I spend so much time in the submarine, Silver"

That reminded me of something "by the way; where did you get that thing?"

"My human father was one of the scientists who developed it; some terrorist group came and stole it, killing everyone. When some random kid trainer beat them all, me and Silver-"

"'Silver and I'" Murphy corrected…isn't he just annoyingly cute?

Allen didn't skip a beat and just continued where he left off "-stole it back. After all; everyone else who had any rightful claim to it was dead, and…well, things just continued from there; before I knew it, we were pirates"

"Anyway, let's get back to the ship. Once we drop you guys off we'll get our reward" Silver said

"Reward?" asked Floret

Silver snorted "oh please! You didn't really think we were doing this out of the kindness of our hearts?"

Deciding it was a good idea to take the conversation in another direction; Arc asked me something "so Bane; any idea where we'll find Registeel?"

I nodded "a rough one. The good news is it should be nearby where an…old friend of mine lives"

That caught the other's attention "really! Who?" asked Floret

"Someone who, assuming he's still the same as before, I shouldn't leave alone with Floret"…jeez, don't look at me like that, I was only joking

*(Scene Break)*

It was raining _really_ hard. "Well everyone, here we are; Route…something" I pathetically announced. It was weird, up until that point I hadn't gone to one of the places I went on my last journey with this group. I was feeling nostalgic, and seeing as we were both Lucario's I knew Aura could pick up on that

"'Route something', amazing memory there Bane" Aura said sarcastically. Yeah…I think I should explain; Silver and Allen had just dropped us off at the beach that connects to the Route that the weather place is

Arc sighed "I _really_ hope there's a mine on this side of the region"

"Yes" Caydy replied "It would be quite awkward to find Registeel in a heavily forested area"

"Let's just get going you guys" I said "if I remember right, this place has the most rainfall in the whole region, and I'd like to hurry through the rain, rather than linger in it"

Arc got a mischievous glint in his eye "are you sure you wouldn't like to take your time to start singing in-" but he didn't finish that sentence, the Aura Sphere I had aimed at him told him not to "ok, ok, ok! I get it"

The Aura Sphere dissipated "glad we understand each other"

Then we started walking, and that's pretty much it for a while; sure we had some light conversation, but nothing story worthy…until later that is, when we were close to the Weather Intuition

"Wow big brother, it's exciting to actually _see_ the sites of where all those events from you adventure happened" Floret remarked

I rubbed the back of my head "well, nothing really _epic_ happened on this Route. If anything the excitement started on the next one"

"Well I can't wait" Floret gushed "a secret Pokémon Village so close to a human settlement, I wonder how they've kept themselves hidden all this time"

That is, assuming they haven't been found by now" I mumbled

"What I don't get is that berry that cures brain damage" Arc spoke up "I mean really, you'd think humans would have discovered that long before Pokémon. What with them being the curious creatures they are; always trying to find something new"

I raised an eyebrow at him "well, you certainly seemed to have acquired that same drive for archaeology"

Then he scoffed at me "are you insane! Who wouldn't! Just being able to hold a piece of such ancient history in your hands…it's amazing, breathtaking" I remember he said more on the subject, but honestly; I stopped paying attention

"Hey Bane, I forgot; did something significant happen around here?" Aura asked.

I nodded "We met Shu here…and some Stunky who's name I can't remember, honestly I can't even recall one conversation I had with him"

"…Did either of them…" Aura left the question hanging there, not sure how to finish asking it, and honestly; I'm not sure how I would have either

"Shu died, the Stunky lived"

"I…I'm sorry to hear that" she replied

I let out what I can only describe as a cross between a sigh and a chuckle "It's weird; there were 4 of us reborns in that group, and only half of us made it out…not in one piece mind you; I lost a leg and Angela lost her mom" yes you heard me right; I _knew_

"You mean that Arcanine…Enfer was it? Come to think of it, you never were very clear how you figured it out"

This time I let out a pure chuckle "oh please Aura. You know as well as I do that while Riolu aren't as good at sensing aura as we are evolved, we're still pretty good. Not only that but Angela and I were _a lot_ alike, we both know what it's like having a, for lack of a better word _mother_ that doesn't care about our wellbeing. True it took me awhile to figure out; I mean it wasn't until I told her about my life back at the village that I finally put the piece together"

Aura looked surprised "you told her about the village? What stories did you tell her?...Did you ever tell her the one where-" but I knew which story she was talking about

"No, I didn't have time to tell her about our sitrus berry adventure. The only stories I told her was how I died, and the day I met you and Shade. I was planning on telling her more…we just never got around to it" then she slapped me "Aura!"

"Of all the stories you could tell her, and you tell her that one! She probably thinks I'm some kind of hormonal stalker!"

And then I did the stupidest thing I possibly could have done in that situation; agree with her "well you were back than" and then she hit me…_hard_

"Um…what's the thing over there big brother?" Floret ask, pointing to a building that was close to us

I remember that I felt really grateful that Floret changed the topic "oh, that's a weather building" I stopped to think for a minute "if I remember correctly; it's near the human city that we need to get past" I took a quick look at the sky "yeah…it's getting dark, we should probably pack it in for the night, we should be able to get to where my friend is tomorrow"

Arc nodded "alright then, let's set up camp near the trees" we all nodded, having thought the same thing. I was really looking forward to tomorrow, it was going to be fun to see Titan again, little did I now there was someone else we were going to meet that would impact our whole journey…well, I think it's more accurate to say some_ones_

Well that's chapter 21, again, so sorry it took so long; with collage and my muse going deaf I had a hard time writing this chapter, I'll try to do better in the future. Read and review but remember; if you can't say anything nice don't say anything at all


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